Three locked properties that had turned into mosquito breeding sites were broken open by vector control workers of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation recently in the presence of police to clear the sites, mayor Firhad Hakim said on Saturday.
Hakim said that the civic body will seek the help of the police wherever they come across locked properties that turn into dens of mosquitoes.
“We have to act. We cannot let other people suffer because a property is locked and no one clears the stagnant water inside,” he said.
KMC officials said that the properties were in Tollygunge’s Suryanagar and Netaji Nagar’s Sanghati Colony, in south Kolkata, and one in borough-II, which covers the Sovabazar-Hatibagan-Shyambazar-Maniktala area, in north Kolkata.
An official of the KMC’s health department said that the properties in south Kolkata had multiple mosquito breeding pockets when vector control workers broke into them.
“The property in Netaji Nagar’s Sanghati Colony was a three-storey house. We found mosquito larvae in several places on the terrace after we went inside about a month back. The property in Suryanagar is lying vacant for about a decade. We found mosquito larvae inside this property, too, when we broke open the lock and went in about 12 days back,” said an official.
Arup Chakraborty, councillor of Ward 98, where both properties are located said: “We are focussing on awareness campaigns so people throw unused water... I will urge residents to inform us if they know about any place that has turned into a mosquito breeding ground.”
Hakim’s statement came in the backdrop of rising dengue and malaria cases in the city.
About 350 dengue and 2,500 malaria cases have been reported in the city this year.
The Aedes Aegypti mosquito is the main vector of the dengue virus. The WHO website says “disposing of solid waste properly and removing artificial man-made habitats that can hold water...” were among the measures to be adopted to prevent breeding of the mosquito.
Malaria spreads through the bite of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes, says the WHO website. The mosquito breeds in pools of water that remains undisturbed for long, said a KMC official.