A four-member team was constituted on Tuesday to control mosquito breeding at Rashtrapati Bhavan after New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) detected mosquito-breeding conditions at President’s house.
The decision was taken at a top level meeting held among New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) and Director of the President’s Estate to brainstorm ways and means to control mosquito breeding at Rashtrapati Bhavan at the earliest.
The team consists of one member each from sanitation and horticulture units at Rashtrapati Bhavan, Central Public Works Department (CPWD) and Malaria unit of NDMC Health Department.
The civic body has issued notices about 70 times to the officials of President’s house in August month itself.
Talking to The Pioneer, a senior health department official of NDMC, said: “We are working with officials of the Presidents’ house to make the entire area free from mosquito-breeding conditions. For this, a team of four members has been constituted to look into the matter and work in this regard round the clock.”
“The presences of aedes mosquito breeding conditions have been detected in the quarters of class IV employees, where things that can store water are kept in open. Overhead water tanks are without lid,” said the official.
Eariler, The Pioneer had reported that the NDMC had issued notices to five embassies for letting mosquitoes breed in their premises. The council also issued challans to four hospitals and one school for allowing breeding of mosquitoes that cause dengue. The Embassies that have been served notice are: Ethiopia, Czech, Ghana, Malaysia and Singapore. The four hospitals are All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Safdarjung Hospital, Ram Manohar lohia Hospital (RMl) and lady Hardinge Hospital along with Mount Carmel School and all the State Government Bhawans.
Taking serious cognizance of the issue, National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP) gave strict instructions to the senior officials of its organisation to inspect the hospitals every week.
“All the top officials from NVBDCP have been directed to visit all the hospitals falling under NDMC jurisdiction, as there is zero tolerance on this issue,” said the official. Even, orders have been given to all the medical superintendents of all the hospitals, the official further said.
According to the officer, NDMC is keen to curb the presence of mosquito breeding conditions, but there is no cooperation from civil engineering department of CPWD of Urban Development Ministry. “The officials of NVBDCP have also directed civil engineering department of CPWD to check for proper gradient which should be made in all hospitals, so that water cannot accumulate there,” said the official adding, the civic agency and CPWD need to work in tandem.
Besides, NDMC has issued advisory to all the embassies to be active in preventing breeding of mosquitoes and ready to extend any kind of support to embassies. In fact, Pakistan Embassy has invited NDMC to test suspected mosquito breeding in its campus, added the official.
From January to August, the council has issued about 3215 notices and 137 challans to the institutions falling under its jurisdiction. Till now, over 11 cases of dengue have been registered in the area.