Dengue mosquito-breeding sites found in the houses of five IAS officers including addl municipal commissioner.
Mumbai: In a rare instance of active vigilance shown by a municipal officer, IA Kundan, additional municipal commissioner, with her team of civic officials swooped down in her building for inspecting dengue larvae and found dengue mosquito-breeding sites in the houses of five IAS officers.
While the civic body is continuing its quest for dengue breeding sites in city’s slums with regular inspection rounds in the slum areas, this high rise building near Mantralaya named ‘Yashodhan’ was found with dengue larvae. Interestingly, this building is house to several senior bureaucrats in the state administration.
A recent civic data stated that mosquito breeding spots are four times more in buildings than in slums.
IAS officers who are responsible for the proper administration of the city have been caught red handed on their ignorance. The five IAS officers are Ashish Kumar Singh, Principal Secretary, PWD, J M Saharia, State Election Commissioner, Ajit Kumar Jain, State Information Commissioner, and two others like Navin Sona and Shyam Lal Goyal.
A senior civic official said, “Kundan had directed the civic health department to carry out the inspection in her building. However, none of the residents are affected by the dengue larvae.”
The Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai claims to have inspected about 75 lakh houses across the city for mosquito breeding spots. There has been a rise in the total number of patients (160 patients till Sept19) admitted for dengue due to which the civic body is taking strict action against citizens for not taking measures to prevent dengue.
The MCGM has already sent 13,583 legal notices to people who are negligent towards preventing the spread of dengue. Out of these, the civic body has started with the legal procedures and has collected fines as a penalty in 927 cases.
A senior civic official said, “Till date, the civic body has collected around Rs 26.92 lakh. Further, they are planning to purchase new fumigation machines. Moreover, the local body will recruit around 285 more staffers to work for preventing the spread of dengue.”
