Cuttack, July 25: The municipal corporation here has decided to intensify fogging operations at Jagatpur Industrial Estate, the epicentre of the dengue outbreak in the city this year.
The civic body has ordered a vehicle-mounted automatic fogging machine from New Delhi at an estimated cost of Rs 11 lakh and it will be used particularly for the open spaces in and around the Jagatpur industrial belt.
Nearly 386 cases of dengue have been reported from Jagatpur, which falls in ward No. 49 of the Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) limits while 92 cases have also been reported from various other wards of the city.
"As of now, we have procured two vehicle-mounted fogging machines from the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation. Once our own machine arrives from New Delhi tomorrow, we will be able to intensify the operations to contain the dengue outbreak at Jagatpur," said Gyana Das, municipal commissioner.
The chairman of the CMC's standing committee on public health, Ranjan Biswal, said fogging operations with small hand-driven automatic machines were being conducted in the localities in and around Jagatpur.
At present, the CMC has at its disposal 57 hand-driven automatic fogging machines and a detailed plan has been made to conduct an intense fogging operation in all the wards, from where sporadic dengue cases have been reported.
Primarily, the fogging operations will be carried out in a phased manner in the dengue-affected wards - Sikharpur, Chauliaganj, Managalabag, Ranihat, College Square, Khapuria and Nuapada - on a priority basis.
Many voluntary groups have started to extend their support to the CMC in its ongoing efforts to contain the dengue outbreak.
Marwari Yuva Manch today donated 150 mosquito nets to the civic body and the Odisha Industry Federation has decided to supply 300 additional mosquito nets for distribution among the dengue-affected families at Jagatpur.
In another development, the Jagatpur Industries' Association threatened to close down their factories to protest against the showcause and closure notices served to a few units by the civic body.
"We are ready to co-operate with the civic body in its drive to improve the sanitation system in Jagatpur. But, blaming the industries for dengue outbreak is not justified at all since the CMC has not taken any measures to improve the drainage system," said Abani Kanungo, the president of Jagatpur Industries' Association.
Senior officials of the CMC, on the other hand, claimed the industries had been served temporary closure notices for not maintaining proper sanitation at their respective complexes because of which such units have turned into breeding sites of the aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which spread dengue.
Of the 35 closed industrial units at Jagatpur, 23 have been sanitised while officials of the Odisha Industrial Development Corporation have been asked to facilitate the opening of the locked units at the earliest, said a CMC official.
Official sources said, out of the 39 new cases, 31 were reported from Jagatpur industrial estate alone. So far, 417 persons have been tested positive for dengue from Jagatpur this year.
The principal secretary of health and family welfare, Arati Ahuja, took stock of the ongoing sanitation and anti-dengue activities undertaken by CMC today. However, fresh larvae were again found from an unit that was earlier slapped with a showcause notice by the civic body last week.
