The Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has deployed additional vector-control teams and solid waste management workers as part of its dengue-prevention drive.
This year, the civic body has started the drive early. A surge in dengue cases is usually reported from the monsoon.
The teams supplement health and vector-control workers who are already working in all 41 wards of the civic body, including Salt Lake, Baguiati, Kestopur, Kaikhali, Teghoria and parts of Rajarhat, officials said.
Banibrata Banerjee, the mayoral council member in charge of health at the BMC, said they have also launched a special cleanliness drive to spot and destroy mosquito-breeding grounds.
“We have started sending additional teams of solid waste management workers and vector-control personnel to each ward. They have been asked to clean any garbage found on streets or vacant plots. They are also spraying larvicide once the area is cleaned," Banerjee said.
The dengue virus is spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito. It takes around a week since eggs are laid for adult mosquitoes to emerge.
Another official in the BMC's health department said the teams have also been asked to cooperate with residents and remove any garbage that they request them to.
“Earlier, we had come across houses where people would not dispose of used tyres and mattresses by themselves. We have asked the teams to help residents move out anything they want to throw away,” said the official.
On Monday, Metro crisscrossed the township and found mounds of garbage near City Centre and the CGO Complex.
Piles of garbage were seen on empty plots in a number of blocks, including BJ, CK and IB.
Any accumulated waste is likely to have containers — glasses, bottles, cups and plates — that can turn into mosquito-breeding sites if water accumulates in them, said an entomologist.
Health workers are also visiting door to door and asking residents if they are running a temperature.
“Till now we have not received any report of a dengue infection in areas under the BMC," Banerjee said.