Mumbai: BMC's own garage becomes parking lot for mosquitoes

Sources said these vehicles were abandoned here seven years ago and were never removedEven as BMC officials go from building to building penalising citizens for unclean premises that become breeding grounds for mosquitoes the civic body canrsquot be bothered to clean its own house At least 40 staffers from the BMCrsquos Asphalt Garage in Worli have fallen ill with dengue malaria and viral fever in the last two months thanks to the cluttered and dirty premisesOne of the mosquito breeding spots that officials found at Asphalt GarageAsphalt Garage comes under the transport wing of the Solid Waste Management SWM department and it is where the BMCrsquos vehicles are parked But the outbreak of disease has left the department with half its total strength of drivers and cleanersmidday spoke to three drivers who were diagnosed with dengue However fearing backlash from the administration these employees requested to remain unnamedOne of the drivers said ldquoMore than 30 of us have fallen ill one by one in the last two months When a few people tested positive for dengue we complained to the Gsouth ward officers about the problem and gave them a list of the people who have fallen illrdquoOn Tuesday the officials from the insecticide department visited the garage and found two mosquito breeding spotsDrivers are vulnerableAccording to another driver it is the abandoned vehicles lying at the garage that are the real source of the spate of illnesses ldquoThe team of officials from the insecticide department found mosquito breeding spots below these abandoned vehicles Most of the drivers live outside Mumbai and since they finish their shift very late in the night and end up sleeping at the garage That is why they are more vulnerable to dengue or malariardquo he saidA senior civic official from BMC said ldquoScrapping the abandoned vehicles is a very serious issue Water accumulates there and thatrsquos where mosquito breeding happens These vehicles have been here since seven years but the department has done nothing to phase them outrdquoThe other sideHowever Insecticide Officer Rajan Naringrekar denied that the workers were suffering from dengue and claimed it was merely viral fever When this reporter mentioned that at least three of them had confirmed diagnoses of dengue he responded ldquoPerhaps two or three or them are suffering from dengue but the figure of 40 workers falling victim to dengue is not true Our officials called these people and most of them complained about viral fever We have taken blood samples of the all the employees working thererdquoldquoWe found mosquito breeding at two places mdash water had accumulated in the engine of an abandoned vehicle and another spot was below the abandoned vehicles We destroyed both spots All the preventive measures were taken to avoid outbreak of disease and we regularly send two cleaning staffers and a sweeper to clean the area properly We have now written to the SWM wing asking them clear out the abandoned vehicles from the garagerdquo said NaringrekarChief engineer of the SWM department Siraj Ansari was not available for comment However a senior official from the department said ldquoThe process of disposal of abandoned vehicles is in the final stage We are finalising the tender and will soon be able to phase them outrdquo