Mumbaikars feel the bite, as BMC keeps mosquitoes away from netas

While the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation BMC is taking care to snuff out mosquitoes from the immediate environs of Shiv Sena and Bharatiya Janata Party leaders citizens have been left to grumble about the evermultiplying bloodsuckers in their localities which have not been fumigated despite the rising menace of dengueFumigation work was on outside Matoshree last night as well as the previous night when a meeting of Sena MLAs was going on inside PicsAtul KambleLate on Wednesday night when the Sena had called a meeting of its MLAs and leaders at Matoshree the pest control departmentrsquos employees were seen fumigating around the Thackeray householdThe spraying was resumed the next day Even Wankhede stadiumrsquos surroundings were reportedly misted over with disinfectants to ensure a bitefree swearingin of the chief minister today The common man meanwhile felt the itch of the partialityCivic workers fumigate the area around Matoshree Bandra late on Wednesday while a Sena meeting is underway inside the work continued on Thursday nightWith the sudden outbreak of dengue noticed this month in the city mdash 6 to 7 patients tested positively for dengue almost every day the BMC has not initiated extra measures to curb the disease residents complainWhile the corporation said it issued notices to various residential societies against neglecting to check breeding of mosquitoes citizens believe it has not done anything for themResidents of Malvani Gate 5 Malad West had complained to the PNorth ward office about a particularly noxious sewer and irregular collection of waste leading to proliferation of mosquitoes but they are still waiting for BMCrsquos fumigation teamIn the meantime a resident landed in hospital after contracting dengue Shahnaz Hussain said ldquoThe BMC has not been carrying out fumigation drives The gutters are never cleaned This time it was I But there are children in my locality What if they have to suffer through this as well The authorities should take the issue seriouslyrdquoNeighbourhoods in western and eastern suburbs also saw similar grievances When the issue was discussed by corporators at the BMC Standing Committee meeting yesterday the authorities realised that the problem had gripped many areas in Andheri East and West Ghatkopar Borivli West Dahisar East and Kurla among othersThe BMC then sought to lean on shorthandedness and dearth of fuel to exempt itself of the blame for not fumigating widely and adequately and said it would extend the breadth of its decontamination drives in coming daysWhen we questioned the insecticide officer Rajan Naringrekar of the pest control departmentrsquos working hours and why the staff was working late on Wednesday night he said ldquoOur working hours are from 7 am to 200 pmBut if there is any complaint or a specific demand from the elected representatives we usually try and provide them with fumigationrdquo He added ldquoBut more than fumigation it is important that breeding of mosquitoes is brought completely under control and that can be done only by citizensrsquo effortsrdquoBMC speakDr Suhasini Nagda director of Medical Health at BMC told this paper ldquoRecently routine activities took a backseat because of staff shortage There were issues with procuring diesel but we have sorted that and started routine workWe have asked residential societies to keep their surroundings clean and not store water for a long time We conduct inspections and issue notices to societies where breeding spots are found If the breeding persists we will complain to the police against the societies not obeying BMCrsquos orders and endangering peoplersquos livesrdquoShe continued ldquoWe will also carry out a special public awareness drive as there was a dengue outbreak in the city just like we did to curtail malaria We would put up posters on public vehicles so more and more people know about itrdquo