Firhad Hakim:
We are doing our best. But we cannot go to people’s houses and clean the inside of their homes. Residents have to clean their homes. Our vector-control workers visit every neighbourhood once a week
Atin Ghosh, deputy mayor of Kolkata and head of KMC’s health department:
It is not true that vector-control work is not done adequately. There are some wards that are very large, where vector-control workers cannot go back after seven days. But we have a type of larvicide that works for a fortnight. We spray that larvicide in such wards. People expect that we visit each and every house again and again. We cannot do that. We have a list of homes that are repeat offenders. We visit those premises frequently.
Krishna Chakraborty, mayor of Bidhannagar:
People need to get rid of the habit of dumping waste wherever they please. Also, they must ensure that their houses are clean and free of stagnant water.
Kasturi Choudhury, chairperson of South Dum Dum Municipality:
We don’t spray larvicide in one place every day. So residents of a locality where larvicide is not sprayed on a particular day might say that our workers are negligent. But nothing can be farther from the truth.
Bappaditya Dasgupta, councillor of Ward 101 of KMC (Patuli), where eight to nine dengue cases are being reported every day on an average:
Vector-control workers have been working relentlessly. They have worked without a break for days. A large number of mosquito larvae were found inside people’s homes, in flower pots and other containers.
Debika Chakraborty, councillor of Ward 3 of KMC (Milk Colony-Duttabagan), where seven to eight cases are being reported daily on an average:
We have been undertaking joint drives involving drainage, solid waste management and health departments of the KMC for the last three months. Whenever we came across any clogged drain, we cleaned it. But there is a water body, between Birendranagar and Dum Dum, that belongs to the railways. That is very unclean. If we get an NOC from the railways, we will clean it.
Suman Singh, councillor of ward 6 of KMC (Cossipore), where four cases are being reported daily on an average:
There are many factories in my ward and the owners often keep them closed for days. Water accumulates inside. We have issued notices to such factories asking the owners to clean the premises. We have been undertaking vector-control work around the year.
Arijit Das Thakur, councillor of Ward 106 of KMC (Kasba), where eight to nine cases are being reported daily on an average:
We have cleaned 76 vacant plots. People start dumping waste soon after the plots are cleaned. We do not have enough personnel to check all mosquito-breeding sites. People have to be more responsible.
Santi Ranjan Kundu, councillor of Ward 32 of KMC (Kankurgachi-Phoolbagan):
Only five cases were reported from my ward in the last one week. We undertake regular vector-control drives. More personnel are deployed during this time of the year for vector-control work.
Calls to Ananya Banerjee, councillor of Ward 109 (Mukundapur), and Paresh Pal, councillor of Ward 31 (Kankurgachi-Phoolbagan), went unanswered. In Ward 109, nine new cases are being reported daily and in Ward 31, two to three cases on an average.