Dengue cases are on the rise across Salt Lake, but the township still has piles of waste along streets and countless mosquito-breeding sites, including the base
of fountains that were set up as part of a beautification project.
According to figures released by the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation’s health department, the number of dengue cases in the areas under the civic body this year crossed 650 on Wednesday.
The number of fresh cases over the last two weeks till Wednesday stood at 205.
These numbers take into account data collected from the civic body-run testing centres in all 41 wards of the civic body. They don’t factor in the positive cases recorded at private hospitals and laboratories.
In Salt Lake, the blocks where a number of people are down with dengue include AE, SA, EE, ED, DL, IC, KB and KC. According to members of these blocks’ residents’ committees, some of the patients have been admitted to hospital.
In AE Block, three residents whose houses are in the same lane are down with dengue, sparking fears of cluster infections.
Stagnant water at a construction site near Tank no. 9, opposite CK Block, in Salt Lake; (right) garbage at a site outside Green Verge Park near the AE Block market Bishwarup Dutta
Tapas Sengupta, secretary of the AE Block Samaj Kalyan Sangha, the residents’ association of AE Block Part II, said an elderly man suffering from dengue for a couple of days had to be admitted to a private hospital in Sector III on Monday night.
A neighbour was discharged from a nursing home on Wednesday after undergoing treatment for dengue.
“All three houses where residents are down with dengue are in the same lane. We are hearing about a few new cases from the block daily. We have requested the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation to take some action, but our pleas seem to have fallen on deaf ears,” said Sengupta.
He said vector-control teams, which are supposed to spray larvicide every week to prevent breeding of the dengue-causing Aedes mosquitoes, are seldom seen in the locality.
The situation is similar in ED Block.
Soham Chakraborty, a resident of ED Block, said an increasing number of people in the block have been testing positive for dengue in the
past couple of weeks. At the same time, he said, the mosquito population in the block has been increasing exponentially.
“The corporation is doing nothing other than putting up dengue awareness posters. There are no vector-control teams and the entire township has started to resemble a garbage dump as piles of waste lie along roads,” said Chakraborty.
On Wednesday, Metro saw stagnant water at the base of four fountains in front of Central Park, near Karunamoyee Housing Complex, where mosquitoes were buzzing. The fountains are currently switched off.
Piles of waste with plastic and earthen cups and styrofoam plates, where water can accumulate, were spotted near Kendriya Vidyalaya No. 1, off City Centre.
An official in the civic body’s health department said they were working in close coordination with other departments to remove garbage and spray larvicide regularly across Salt Lake.