After 12 test positive, dengue meet in Salt Lake

KOLKATA: The Bidhhannagar civic authorities have have started working on its plan to prevent a dengue outbreak, after 12 persons had been tested NS 1 positive between January and March 15.
A total of 2,850 persons had been tested NS 1 positive in the city last year. In 2016, the NS 1 positive figure was 1,407 and in 2015 it was 840.

The civic authorities held this year’s first review meeting on Thursday.

Officials stressed on the coordination between the health, conservancy and environment departments to check the spread of vectorborne diseases.

Mayor Sabyasachi Dutta said, “We have appealed to the central government agencies to keep their office premises and residential complexes in Bidhannagar clean, or allow us to clean the areas in lieu of a service charge.” He added that a huge bill is already pending for the clean-up of the Salt Lake stadium before the FIFA U-17 World Cup.

Dutta said vulnerable zones have been mapped as red, green and yellow. Areas around the Kestopur canal and Baguiati have been listed in Red zone as the most dengueaffected regions. “All private hospitals in the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation area have been asked to upload dengue data on our website,” the mayor said.

“We are planning to penalise those households where stagnant water is found,” Dutta said. The authorities also plan to show an advertisement in cinema theatres in Salt Lake as part of an awareness campaign.

Bidhannagar MMiC (health) Pranay Roy said they were exploring a new radiation technology to eliminate mosquitoes. Councillors have been asked to actively participate in larvicide spraying and fogging activities, cleaning up the blocked drains and waterbodies, preventing garbage pile-up and door-to-door surveys. The civic body has increased its budget allotment by Rs 32 lakhs since last year for implementing its mosquito-control programme. The allotment in 2017 for this sector was Rs 1,94,95,800. This year it has been increased to Rs 2,27,43,000.

Last year, 14 persons had died and several hundreds were affected by dengue in the Bidhannagar municipal area. The worst affected places were Kestopur, Prafullakanan, Baguiati, Raghunathpur and surrounding areas. Though only one dengue death was reported in Salt Lake, hundreds were affected.