Mumbai : Half-baked knowledge and poor co-ordination between its various departments has led the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation to put up misleading signboards cautioning people against monsoon related contagious diseases.
Signboards put up by the civic body around Gateway of India read “To avoid Gastro, Dengue and Malaria Pl. don’t eat outside food”.
Dr. Om Shrivastav, who is the Director of Infectious diseases at Jaslok Hospital, said, “There is no way that dengue or malaria can be contracted through eating food. Gastro can be contracted through consumption of contaminated water but malaria and dengue are transmitted only through mosquito bites, when the parasite carrying the disease enters a person’s blood stream through a mosquito’s saliva.”
These boards have been put up in an area swamped with tourists from all across India and other countries. The civic body seems to have made a mockery of itself not only before Mumbaikars, but before tourists as well.
City-based environmentalist Stalin D said, “The BMC is supposed to be the health watchdog for citizens but it seems clueless. It has always had a laid back attitude towards healthcare. Such a blunder reinforces the charge of lack of knowledge as well”.
When the Free Press Journal contacted Dr Padmaja Keskar, executive health officer of the BMC, she was unaware of the sign boards or the department which had put them up. “It is definitely not our department as we have doctors who would have realized the mistake. I will send officers to inspect the area and we will pull the sign boards down, if the information you have given is correct.”
