It appears that the Bruhut Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is oblivious to mosquito menace in the city. It is not that it is short of money to take up fogging but it has not made full use of the funds available.
Going by the statistics provided by Bengaluru Development Minister K J George in the Legislative Council on Thursday, the BBMP from 2014-15 to 2016-17, has spent only Rs 5.17 crore of Rs 23 crore allocated for fogging.
George provided the details to a question tabled by Jayamala Ramachandra (Cong). He said fogging is done by employees of the Palike and the work is not outsourced. Fogging is done as per requirement to check the spread of dengue and chikungunya. There has been no misuse of funds, he added.
However, Jayamala and other members argued that mosquito menace has increased considerably and effective measures have not been taken to contain the same.
Congress members V S Ugrappa and Ivan D’souza complained that even the Legislators’ Homes have been facing mosquito problem. Ganesh Karnik (BJP) sarcastically said the government in the next budget should come out with ‘mosquitoe net bhagya’.
Congress member K Govindaraj jocularly said that as Jayamala seems to have studied the subject well, it is better to make her brand ambassador to launch a drive against mosquitoes.