‘Dengue eradication plan getting poor response’

The Health Ministry yesterday charged that only 23 of 385 government institutes including Ministries had established mosquito eradication committees.

The ministry in a statement said, “The Presidential Dengue Eradication Task Force (PDETF) has instructed all Line Ministries,

Departments, Authorities, Statutory Boards, Commissions, Corporations and Statutory Institutions to implement instruc-

All other state institutions have neglected the setting up of such committees

tions of the Presidential Secretary’s Circular.

It was decided to employ a large number of defence personnel to implement the Mosquito Eradication Programmes this month.

Although instructions were issued to all statutory bodies to establish mosquito eradication committees, there are only nine line ministries which established such committees out of 45. Four departments out of 90, one out of 33 authorities, one out of 30 boards, one out of 21 commissions, one out of 24 corporations and six out of 142 statutary boards have established committees. All other state institutions have neglected the setting up of such committees.”

It also said, during a discussion on last week with Minister Sirisena and Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, it was decided to employ a large number of defence personnel to implement the Mosquito Eradication Programmes this month. Thereby a massive group including the three armed forces, police, civil defence force, public health inspectors and entomologists will implement these programmes covering the entire country.The ‘Mosquito Eradication Month’ will start

from today.