A number of Kolkatans have alleged that vector-control workers of civic bodies were not carrying larvicide or not spraying it during home visits to look for mosquito-breeding sites.
On being asked why they were not spraying larvicide or carrying the chemical, some vector-control workers cited shortage, said a Kasba resident, worried that the lax attitude would only fan the spread of dengue, which has assumed alarming proportions in the city and its adjoining areas.
An official in the state health department said 792 fresh dengue cases were reported from across the city on Sunday. As many as 695 patients were under treatment at various government hospitals.
“A vector-control team from the Kolkata Municipal Corporation visited our apartment block last week and found larvae of the Aedes egypti mosquito (the transmitter of the dengue virus) in a small container. They immediately emptied the container to destroy the larvae,” said the Kasba resident.
“When I asked them why they were not carrying larvicide, they said there was a shortage of the chemical. They said larvicide is sprayed only at those places where there is a large pool of water infested with larvae.”
A resident of Ekdalia Place alleged vector-control workers came and asked them to sign in a diary as evidence that they had visited the house.
“They told us they had sprayed larvicide and done the necessary work. I never got a chance to see them spray the larvicide,” he said.
Shyamal Jana, a resident of Arjunpur in Baguiati, which is under the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation, said he had spotted vector-control teams with larvicide sprayers strapped around them but not spraying anything.
Jana said one of the men told him they were “conducting a survey and the spraying will be done on a later date."
“I again spotted them a few days later. When I asked them why they were not spraying larvicide, they walked away hurriedly without replying,” Jana said.
Debashis Biswas, chief vector control officer of the KMC’s health department, told The Telegraph there was no shortage of larvicide.