High court directs CMC to check mosquito menace

Cuttack: The Orissa high court has directed the Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) to measure the density of mosquitoes on a weekly basis along with daily spraying of anti-larvae oil in all drainage channels in the city.
The density of mosquitoes is calculated on the average number of mosquito bites per hour on 10 people. While a density of 30 is considered normal, 40 is moderate and above 40 is high.The court also directed the CMC to make the data on all 59 wards available in the public domain.

A special bench constituted by Chief Justice Chakradhari Sharan Singh recently for adjudicating on PILs concerning civic problems in Cuttack issued the direction on Thursday while expressing concern over CMC’s failure to control mosquito menace.
The two-judge bench of Justices S K Sahoo and V Narasingh said, “The corporation has failed to carry out proper bush cutting operation which are contributing in a large measure for the breeding of mosquitoes. A sensitive civil administration should have an effective eradication programme in place year-round and if the corporation refuses to wake up from its deep and blissful slumber, it would cause health hazards.”
It said mosquito menace is a persistent all-season civil problem of Cuttack city and it is responsible for serious diseases like malaria, dengue, among others.
“For effective monitoring of the exercise undertaken by the CMC for eradication of mosquito menace, the supervisors of each ward shall upload the data relating to sprinkling of mosquito larvicide oil and temephos larvicide of their respective wards in the central database on daily basis and mosquito density of each area has to be measured after such sprinkling on a weekly exercise. Necessary instruction in this regard shall be imparted by the commissioner, Cuttack Municipal Corporation,” the bench further said.
An advocates committee constituted by the court had expressed concern over growing mosquito menace in the city and stated that measures taken by CMC are insufficient to check the problem and some urgent effective measures need to be taken. The drains are choked which has resulted in the rise of number of mosquitoes, the committee had stated.
On May 2, the court had asked CMC to file an affidavit indicating in which areas steps have been taken for sprinkling mosquito larvicide oil in stagnant water in drains and temephos larvicide sprinkling on the campus and latrine area of each household.
It also sought data on how much oil and larvicide have been utilised in April and to file documents showing the signatures of the respective households being taken.