Onus to check mosquitoes lies on civic agencies, not repellent firms

IN EVERY MUNICIPAL JURISDICTION, CONSUMERS NEED TO FORM GROUPS AND USE RTI ACT TO GET INFORMATION ON HOW MUNICIPALITIES ARE TACKLING THE PROBLEM

have to be used on the skin, some on the clothes. If you see the wide range of mosquito repellents displayed on supermarket shelves, you will understand how there is a direct correlation between incompetent municipal bodies and the repellent industry.

There’s another sector that’s benefitting enormously from the civic authorities failure to control the mosquitoes— the private health care industry and I refer here particularly to the diagnostic centres. Every time a citizen falls sick, doctors advise tests for dengue and malaria. So you end up spending on those tests and if they confirm any of the dreaded diseases, then you have to be prepared to spend more, not just on doctors and medicines, but on further tests. In addition, there is immense suffering and in case of daily wage earners, there is also loss of earning.

Barring exceptions, most municipalities have failed the citizenry and the people live in mortal fear of contracting mosquitoborne diseases. If this is to change, we need to demand accountability from those who run these civic bodies. We need to use every possible weapon in our armoury, including public inter- est litigation, to force the authorities to act. Last year, for example, the Jharkhand High Court had summoned the Mayor of Ranchi in response to a PIL filed on the local body’s failure to contain the mosquito population. Interestingly, while hearing the petition, the judge had observed : “I use all kinds of repellents but no relief. Mosquitoes reappear”.

In every municipal jurisdiction, consumers need to form groups and use the Right to Information Act to get information on how municipalities are tackling the problem. Citizens must know the amount of money being sanctioned for mosquito control and whether it is being spent judiciously. They need to know the steps being taken by the authorities to curb the mosquito menace. And this information needs to be analysed to scrutinize the work of the civic authorities and ensure that the problem is tackled in a methodical, scientific and consistent manner.

Imposing a heavy penalty on commercial entities such as builders, scrap dealers, automobile workshops , for not keeping the surroundings clean and free of receptacles in which water could collect, is certainly necessary. But, it is also imperative that municipalities keep their own backyards clean –and that includes parks, hospitals, schools and other civic facilities maintained by them- and also take immediate measures to clear garbage and close open drains that contribute immensely to mosquito breeding. In fact, every municipality should constitute a group consisting citizens, municipal officials and experts to regularly monitor the work in this area. This needs to be done urgently because of heavy rains and the prospect of mosquitoborne diseases shooting up. Meanwhile, it is not a bad idea to emulate the public interest litigant of Jharkhand and hope a sympathetic judiciary will crack the whip and enforce accountability in our municipal bodies.