“Rise in the number of dengue cases will be under control within the next 10 days,” said Minister for Cooperation ‘Sellur’ K. Raju and Commissioner of Municipal Administration G. Prakash when they addressed a review meeting here on Wednesday. Officials from various municipalities were present.
Collector K. Veera Raghava Rao and Corporation Commissioner S. Aneesh Sekhar explained the steps taken by the administration to check spread of the disease.
Mr. Raju said that 400 conservancy workers, 1100 breeding checkers and several officers were involved in the awareness campaign. He pointed out said that many equipment and eight fogging vans had been purchased.
Mr. Prakash said that water supplied through pipelines would hereafter contain 0.5 parts per million (ppm) of liquid or gas chlorine in order to prevent the breeding of mosquitoes. Areas where ‘chlorine mapping’ had been done rarely saw outbreak of dengue cases. He said that students from 744 schools in Madurai would receive ‘nilavembu kashayam’ to improve their immunity. He said that a three-tier system of workers were in place to check cleanliness of houses. He said that 1600 litres of Temephos larvicide was used to ensure pots, pans and drums did not contain any dengue-carrying larvae. He also commended the corporation for effective drought management.
Mr. Raju and MLA (Madurai South) S.S. Saravanan told Mr. Prakash that drains in their area were overflowing.
Mr. Saravanan said that the underground drainage system was usually clogged and it did not function properly in his constituency. He said that several channels and storm water drains including the Panaiyur and Anuppanadi channels were in bad shape.
Mr. Raju allocated ₹ 54 lakh from his Local Area Development Fund to buy ‘Spider,’ an equipment to completely clean water bodies.
Citizens in several areas such as K. Pudur, Villapuram and Sellur said that their streets were dirty and fogging rarely took place. K. Mani from Ambedkar Street in Villapuram said that the corporation should take steps like regular checking, distribution of ‘nilavembu kashayam’ and clearing of stagnant water to declare fall in the number of dengue cases.