Despite vehicles, money, Lucknow Municipal fails in fogging

Beginning in April, four weeks of fogging have shown no result as mosquito menace is at an all-time high in the city. Underutilized fogging resources and the fogging roster’s sole dependence on complaints and requests of people are indicators that the drive has not been initiated on a war-footing as it should have been.
Lucknow Municipal Corporation has clearly not learnt any lessons from the scores of dengue and malaria cases reported last year.




LMC has around 35 fogging vehicles but on a given day, only around 25 are sent out to fog colonies. The corporation has set a weekly roster according to which vehicles are deployed in one or two zones every day. The idea is to cover all zones over the week. However, despite the roster, there is no check on the number and growth of mosquitoes.

Pinky Srivastava of Indiranagar said, “The roster is only on paper. Had LMC been ensuring actual fogging without a bias, all wards would have become free from the menace. But this is not the case as fogging activity is only concentrated around the houses of ministers and other VIPs.”

Niralanagar resident Anubha Barla said she had not seen a fogging vehicle in her area for years. “There is no respite from mosquitoes despite all measures we take. Fogging can help finish the problem to a large extent as repellents do not work. We have been waiting for fogging but there is only disappointment.”

Every year, LMC gets around Rs 12 crore for fogging but the results rarely show on ground. People in most colonies complain that fogging never reaches their homes. Some say they last saw fogging about three years ago. Ideally, fogging should have begun in February but LMC kept ignoring it. Despite a two-month delay, LMC has concentrated fogging only around VIP areas.

While vehicles regularly fog around ministers, bureaucrats and judges’ houses, it’s the common public which has to resort to complaining on the helpline or online portal to get problem resolved.

An LMC official said, “We have a limited number of vehicles, so we use them based on a roster. A couple of vehicles are permanently deployed in VIP areas while the rest are sent out on the basis of complaints received.”