Mosquito menace hits Amravati

AMRAVATI: The mosquito menace is holding Amravati to ransom. To tackle the problem, the Amravati Municipal Corporation has taken up several measures, including the use of fogging machines and the spraying of deltamexine in city.
The AMC received about Rs 45 lakh last year for getting rid of mosquitoes over a two-year period. The AMC spent about Rs 33.58 lakh last year, which means that the civic body is left with only Rs 11 lakh to tackle the menace this year.This amounts to about Rs 1.50 per head annually to cater to Amravati’s seven lakh population.
Former deputy mayor Digamber Dahake has said that, if the AMC does not take immediate steps to quell the mosquito menace, agitations would follow. Dahake added that ward members have been demanding regular spraying to curb the spread of mosquitoes, but the local health department has been putting off the activity on one pretext or another.
Despite the present circumstances, local political leaders are promising a cleaner Amravati city, although how they propose to do it is anybody’s guess. On one hand, the local health department says that fogging of mosquitoes is a futile procedure, while on the other hand, it has already bought hand-held fogging machines.
In a bid to find the best way to combat the mosquito menace, Dahake had even called up municipal corporations in various other cities, only to find that the best chemical to eradicate mosquitoes is called deltamexine, one dose of which, to be sprayed around the city, will reportedly cost the AMC Rs 1 crore. Meanwhile, the AMC has only Rs 11 lakh of the allotted money left with it, which is said to be insufficient to by any chemical in required dosages, let alone deltamexine, or neon, which is being presently used.
Dahake also alleged that the local health department is unnecessarily secretive about its data and the way it functions. "The departmental meetings are a closely guarded affair, and never has any information been released as to what steps are being taken."
(timesnagpur@timesgroup.com)