Efforts to curb diseases fall short

KANPUR: Caught in the deadly grip of vector-borne diseases, the industrial city has registered a sharp increase in the number dengue, malaria and viral fever cases in the past one month. Courtesy, the ill-equipped Kanpur Nagar Nigam (KNN), the urban local body that never galvanises into action when various diseases are spreading their tentacles in various localities.
Now that the diseases have taken the form of an epidemic, the high court has also issued strict directives to the municipal corporation to ensure cleanliness, garbage removal and continuous fogging in every area. At a time when confirmed dengue cases have reached a total of 114 and malaria to 766, the officials of nagar nigam are still not awake but make tall claims of regular cleaning of the city.
A contrasting picture came to light when TOI tried to gauge the grimness of the situation. For the accomplishment of any programme, manpower plays a crucial role. Both the urban malaria department and the nagar nigam are running short of manpower. In view of the vast city area, a team of at least 10,000 safai karamcharis are required. But KNN has to manage with only 5,000 sanitary workers. Keeping in mind the acute shortage of manpower, KNN has appointed 40 workers on contract basis so far.
Municipal commissioner R Vikram Singh said: "Under the solid waste management (SWM) programme, the problem of staff crunch is handled by the private firm associated with it. Every month around 10-15 nagar nigam sweepers are taking retirement from the job. It is a difficult task to fill the vacant posts. Therefore we have asked the private company carrying out the solid waste management scheme in the city to increase the number of their workers. We are also appointing workers on contract basis."
He also claimed that the cleanliness drive was being carried out as per the expectations and the work had vastly improved in the past few days. "To tackle the unhygienic conditions prevailing in the city, garbage is now being collected in the night hours as well. The quantity of the collected garbage disposed at Panki has also increased, which is a proof of our efforts," said Singh.
Undoubtedly the staff crunch has affected the overall work of garbage removal. Presently, there are only seven modern litter centres, 63 permanent garbage houses and around 75 open areas under KNN for regular disposal of garbage. Besides, under the SWM scheme, containers have been placed in various localities for collection of garbage. But, the entire city is grappling with insanitary conditions as garbage is strewn everywhere.
Be it Ashok Nagar, Om Purwa or Faithful Ganj, a majority of the localities are in deplorable condition. Vijay Pal Singh, a resident of Ashok Nagar, said: "The containers placed for the collection of garbage remain unattended for two to three days and the litter spreads on the road. Despite several reminders, no timely action has been taken so far by the nagar nigam."
Speaking on similar lines, Ram Shankar, a resident of Om Purwa, said: "The garbage collected by the sweepers is thrown outside the garbage house leading to unhygienic conditions in the area."
Meanwhile, the urban malaria department has been facing a shortage of manpower. Presently 322 workers are deployed against the sanctioned post of 360. Only 24 superior field workers (SFWs) are deployed against the sanctioned post of 30 and over 103 inferiors field workers (IFWs) are appointed against the sanctioned posts for 120. Both IFWs and SFWs are the class IV employees who are assigned the duty to spray anti-larvae on stagnant water collected in a locality due to heavy downpour or due to sewage water.
Urban malaria officer AK Singh accepted the city was facing acute shortage of workers. He said: "The urban malaria unit in Kanpur came into operation in the year 1979. Since then the population has increased by threefolds but the sanctioned posts are still the same. Many of the current posts are lying vacant, thus affecting work."
But the health officials of KNN claimed they were carrying out fogging to kill deadly mosquitoes on a regular basis. The municipal commissioner said: "There are 12 fogging machines and ample amount of chemical to carry out fogging drives in the city and it has been done in various areas."
However, Mooven Beg, a resident of Lajpat Nagar, said: "This year fogging has not been carried out in our locality. The claims made by the nagar nigam are worthless as nothing has been done to control the mosquito menace in our area."