People of a village in Tinsukia district of Upper Assam have vowed to launch “No mosquitoes, no malaria mission” through cleanliness drives round the year.

The villagers of Beesakopie gaon on Wednesday organised a “New Year tea party” in which they discussed cleanliness of the village’s streets, public toilets, houses, school and college campuses, drainage, orchards and farmlands to keep mosquitoes at bay and save themselves by eradicating malaria.

“In the tea party-cum-meeting on the subject how the villagers will remain happy and healthy, this ‘No mosquitoes, no malaria’ resolution was passed. The goal will be achieved through cleanliness drives round the year,” village headman Mridul Tanti told this correspondent on Wednesday.

“When we say: ‘Wish you a happy New Year’ to each other, we must do the things which can bring happiness. To ensure protection from vector-borne diseases like malaria, Japanese encephalitis, acute encephalitis syndrome and dengue, we will conduct the programme in an effective and judicious way. We will carry out intensive monitoring of various activities under the programme such as cleaning, fogging and prevent accumulation of water,” Tanti added.

Malaria which ranks closer to Japanese encephalitis in terms of potential severity is one of the major public health hazards in the Northeast.

Subon Tanti, a village youth, said: “We will control mosquito population by limiting their habitats, stopping breedings, keeping the gutters unclogged, keeping the ponds clean and releasing fish which feed on mosquito eggs and larvae, taking special care of the village during rain, keeping the nearby rivulets water running, preventing mosquito breeding and by getting rid of anything where water is stored twice a week. We will be successful in ‘no-mosquitoes mission’.”

Last year, 154 people had died of Japanese encephalitis in Assam. The number is the highest in the past five years.

A source in the National Health Mission office said altogether 630 people were affected by Japanese encephalitis till September last year.

Of them, 154 people had died, including 13 in Goalpara and 11 in Kamrup (rural) districts.

An intensive adult vaccination campaign by the state government's health and family welfare department started from November 15 and will conclude by March 15 this year.

The plan is to cover all the 33 districts of the state.