Oct. 16: The Guwahati Municipal Corporation has submitted a proposal to Dispur for buying fogging machines as the two it has are defunct.

GMC deputy mayor Dipankar Ghosh said the corporation needs funds for at least one vehicle-mounted and four hand-held portable fogging machines. The latter will be pressed into service in areas where vehicle-mounted machines cannot enter.

The cost of a new fogging machine ranges between Rs 3.32 lakh and Rs 6.22 lakh.

Ghosh said the GMC has taken up the matter with Guwahati development minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who also holds the health and family welfare portfolio.

“There is an urgent need to procure the fogging machines as monsoon has been late and we do not want to take any chance,” he said.

Rains and dearth of fogging machines would only increase the mosquito menace in the city.

The corporation had procured two fogging machines in 2001-02 at a cost of Rs 12 lakh. But after being used for about a year, the machines ran out of order and could not be repaired for want of funds. Over the years, the condition of the machines deteriorated beyond repair.

“Repairing the machines was never a priority for the municipal body since it found it difficult to pay salaries to its employees also. As a result, over the years these machines have become damaged beyond repair,” an official source said.

He said the GMC decided to procure new machines after it found that the cost of repairing old ones would be more.

The corporation is at present working with a fogging machine borrowed from the state health department. However, it is grossly inadequate to cover all the 60 municipal wards in the city.

and mosquito menace has increased drastically in the city. In the absence of any precautionary measures, open drains, heaps of unattended garbage and stagnant water along the roads have become breeding grounds for mosquitoes.