Staff shortage affects drive against dengue, chikungunya

RANCHI: Staff shortage has hit Ranchi Municipal Corporation’s (RMC) prevention drive against dengue, malaria, chikungunya and other vector-borne diseases as many wards have not been fogged even once during the past few months, say officials.

“Fogging has not taken place for the past two months in my ward since there is a shortage of staff with the RMC which has affected the drive. Last year, fogging continued throughout the year. But this time, only bleaching powder has been sprinkled and bottles of spray chemicals have been given to us for spraying near the drains and near potential mosquito breeding grounds,” said ward councillor of ward number 1 Sunita Tirkey.

Another ward councillor said collection of waste had not been done properly from many areas in the city due to lack of

manpower. “Fogging usually takes place once a week. However, it has not taken place in my ward for the past one month. Not much is being done to control such diseases,” said Bijay Tirkey, ward councillor of ward 14.

Deputy mayor of the RMC Sanjeev Vijayvargiya said they were not recruiting any staff at present as Essel Infraprojects Limited (EIL) was about to take over from October 2. The RMC has joined hands with EIL for solid waste management.

“We are waiting for them to start operations in Ranchi, after which everything will be streamlined,” he added.

Medicated mosquito nets procured by the state health department have also not arrived yet. The department is procuring 3.41 lakh nets for `10 crore which would be distributed in 52 community health centres (CHCs) of around nine districts, mostly among rural population and in high endemic areas.

61,456 Malaria cases this year till September