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Hotbed of dengue cases in capital, Narela has civic body on alert

Last Updated 29 August 2015, 01:38 IST

The national capital is in the grip of dengue fever and the worst affected is north Delhi’s Narela zone which has seen highest number of dengue cases - 134 out of the total 530 till last count.

Even the officials of North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) admit that Narela zone is the most difficult for them to deal with. According to them, two main reasons have made the people of the area vulnerable to vector-borne diseases.

“Narela is an industrial area. When we go for inspection we find that a lot of factories, whose basements are breeding grounds, are locked. We cannot carry out any checks for mosquito-genic conditions and this prevents us from taking any further action to control the spread of dengue in the area,” Municipal Health Officer, A K Bansal said.

Another reason the official mentioned was that Narela is a rehabilitation colony, which has a huge problem of water supply.

“The tanker comes once in every 15 days.  Due to this, the people are forced to store water for days. The zone mostly constitutes of underprivileged people who store water in whatever containers they can find. And they don’t cover the utensils. Now, mosquitoes don’t need a lot of water to breed,” he said.

The situation is compounded from the fact that the area lies in active floodplain area where digging of around three feet would produce water.

A total of 530 dengue cases have been reported in the national capital so far, with more than 440 reported in August. Out of 530, 134 are from Narela zone alone.

As the situation was getting out of control, the NDMC approached the Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure Corporation Limited (DSIIDC) to issue notices to factories whose owners could not be located.

“We also held awareness drives to educate people on how to store water.”
“The situation has been brought under control now and comparatively fewer cases are being reported,” he added.

The number of cases reported can be high due to another factor also. Areas nearby to Narela have at least four government hospitals and thus the confirmed count can be known easily.

Meanwhile, the corporation on Friday monitored the ‘Anti-Dengue, Malaria and Chikungunya’ prevention drive in Sawatantra Nagar in Narela where about 60,000 people reside and launched an intensive drive for prevention of dengue and malaria in the zone.

Mohan Bhardwaj, Chairman, Standing Committee, NDMC informed that in the drive, 20 handheld fogging machines, field staff with anti-larval spray, staff of maintenance, horticulture department and domestic breeding checkers will move from one side covering the area in a complete manner.

Field staff spray anti-larval medicine, domestic breeding checkers check the breeding in sensitive places for mosquito breeding, horticulture staff takes care of parks and maintenance staff repairs the sensitive places which could be conducive for mosquito breeding.

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(Published 29 August 2015, 01:38 IST)

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