Police to join source-reduction drive

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The city police have decided to join the source-reduction drive initiated by the health department, in the wake of dengue outbreak. As part of this, the police have intensified ‘Operation Sweep’ which aims at penalising anyone who is found guilty of littering public places.
“We book around 10-20 persons a month for disposing waste in public places.We are also taking necessary steps to curb dengue by regularly checking the premises of our offices,” said DCP Arul B Krishna.
Recently, a two-day cleaning drive was held at the General Hospital which was an initiative of police officers and other members of the police association.
“We are also giving ample training and awareness sessions to student police cadets. At present, we have student police cadets from 20 schools in the city and all of them are trained to spread the word about source-reduction and other measures through which the situation cab be handled efficiently. We are also sensitising police officers on dengue outbreak and source-reduction in the monthly Janamaithri meetings,” said the DCP.
The health department, which provided full support of police, has also requested the district collector to send urgent notifications to all government offices in the city, highlighting the potential danger growing in their backyards.
Several ideas were put forward by the health department authorities to contain the mosquito menace, strict observance of ‘Dry Day’ being the latest.
In the review meeting of the district development committee held here on Monday, the health department had given strict instructions to observe ‘Dry Day’ once in a week.
All government offices will observe the day on Saturday while Friday will be the Dry Day for the city schools where the staff and authorities are given strict instructions to check for positive breeding sources and eradicate them.