The Trinamul-run Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC) has decided to form monitoring cells in all its 47 wards to keep a tab on vector-borne diseases and take necessary steps to prevent the spread of such diseases.

Mayor Gautam Deb said: “A decision has been taken to form a separate monitoring cell in all the wards of the SMC. It will monitor the preventive measures carried out by the civic body to check the spread of vector-borne diseases.”

Each cell, SMC sources said, will comprise representatives of respective ward committees, solid waste management committees, NGOs, members of local clubs and social welfare organisations.

During the past few months, the steep surge in dengue cases — according to informal reports, over 4,000 people got infected in the Siliguri civic area and 22 people died of dengue this year so far — had led to repercussions across the city.

Opposition parties, social organisations, residents and even some state health department officials had questioned why the civic body could not control the outbreak.

The Congress, the BJP and the CPM had hit the streets in protest. Shankar Ghosh, the local BJP MLA, had even written to chief minister Mamata Banerjee, seeking her intervention so that the infection could be controlled.

They claimed the alleged inaction of the civic body was responsible for the outbreak of dengue in civic areas.

Deb, however, claimed on Tuesday that there was a downward trend in dengue cases in Siliguri in the past few days.

On Wednesday, the Siliguri mayor visited wards 2 and 20 where the caseload was comparatively higher to take stock of the situation and check out the preventive steps taken up by the civic body.