Denguehit families blame BMC, say negligence caused deaths

Relatives of patients say delay in inspections by the civic body caused 4 dengue deaths

MUMBAI: Lack of preventive care and delay in inspections are the reasons why Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) failed to control dengue that claimed four lives this monsoon, alleged families of the victims.

Relatives of patients, who were either diagnosed positive or succumbed to the disease, said that the areas where the disease was reported from were only inspected after a death. The insecticide department of the BMC, on the other hand, claimed to have raised over Rs 25lakh, by penalising societies which housed dengue breeding ground.

35-year-old Jeetendra Lodha lost his wife Neelam to dengue on September 12 after she had battled the disease for a week in Kokilaben Dhirubhai Hospital. Lodha said minor fumigation activities were carried out, no inspection was undertaken by the BMC employees.

“After my wife’s death, the BMC guys came and located two breeding grounds in our vicinity. Had proper inspection been carried out earlier, the damage could have been prevented,” said Lodha. He has been spreading awareness about the breeding grounds .

An official from BMC, on the condition of anonymity, said, “We don’t have the manpower to inspect about 100-150 buildings in a month,” said the official.

Activists called the explanation a lame excuse to evade their failures. An expert in the city said,“the officials complain about the lack of staff to keep a tab on the vicinities. We have about 100 positive cases in a month.”

Rajan Naringrekar, head of the insecticide department, said, “Whoever claims that there was no fogging , probably isn’t aware of the silent work done by our officers around them. Detection poses a challenge because the residents refuse entry to our officials inside the homes.”