Civic bodies asked to pay surprise visits to areas with higher number of cases
KOLKATA: With an apprehension that dengue-malaria cases may go up this year, the state government has already taken up a host of new initiatives as preventive measures. All the civic bodies have been asked to pay surprise visits fortnightly to the areas where a higher number of cases were reported last year.
The civic bodies will have to submit a report to the Urban Development and Municipal Affairs Department every 7 days giving details as to how the campaigns against the vector borne diseases are being implemented under the jurisdiction of each civic body.
The Urban Development and Municipal Affairs department has already issued a number of instructions. The civic bodies have to strictly adhere to the guideline. The civic bodies have to ensure that there is no accumulated water under its jurisdiction. The civic officials have been directed to carry out surveillance at under construction houses. According to sources, the dengue positive rate in the state remains at around 1.02 per cent.
The dengue cases are higher in Kolkata, Howrah, North 24-Parganas and Hooghly. Special surveillance must be carried out in the areas where digging works or construction works have been going on. Meanwhile, the state Health department has decided to take up round-the-year surveillance to prevent vector-borne diseases as some health experts apprehend that there may be a dengue surge later this year. House-to-house surveys will be carried out till November.
According to sources in the health department a detailed action plan has been charted which will be implemented under the jurisdiction of all the civic bodies. A rapid action team will be constituted in all the municipality areas.
There will be a vector control supervisor, who will monitor the drive. A roadmap is underway, which will involve multiple government departments and thereby taking a holistic approach for better dengue management. State government has recently allocated an additional fund of around Rs 8.5 crore for better implementation of anti vector borne diseases programme.
KOLKATA: The Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL) officials have sought help from local authorities in regards to the ‘unauthorised' structure on Diamond Harbour Road which is blocking the construction work of Majerhat Metro Station.
According to Metro officials, the unauthorised structure is a gym. Majerhat Metro Station is part of the Purple Line which is the Joka-Esplanade Metro corridor.
A part of this corridor, i.e. Joka to Taratala is already providing commercial services and the Metro authorities are trying to extend the services up to Majerhat soon.
However, the construction of stairs and escalator of