Over 3000 notices issued by NDMC so far for mosquito breeding

New Delhi: The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) has issued over 3,000 notices including 90 to the sprawling Rashtrapati Bhawan besides hospitals, government offices and schools during this season after dengue mosquitoes were found breeding in their premises.

193 challans have also been issued by the civic body so far with dengue scare in the national capital calling into question the role of civic bodies in containing the deadly disease.

"We have issued a total of 193 challans this season for mosquito breeding inside institutions and households and served 3,365 notices.

"During the inspection, if the premises are tested positive for mosquito breeding, they are issued notices. But if no improvement is found in the hygiene conditions during the next inspection, the defaulters are issued challans," a senior NDMC official said.

Besides the Presidential Estate, the council has issued challans to four hospitals including AIIMS and Safdarjung, various government offices and a school here for being a dengue mosquito breeding ground.

"The Presidential Estate is huge and during the inspection heavy mosquito breeding was found at various places especially near the residential quarters of the Rasthrapati Bhavan staff.

"Last month we had issued around 80 notices to various departments to check mosquito breeding on their premises, 10 were issued this month," the official said.

The Ministries of Finance and Home Affairs, Bihar Bhawan, Sikkim Bhawan and Uttarakhand Bhawan were issued notices by the NDMC for mosquitogenic conditions on their premises.

The council staff had also detected heavy mosquito-breeding conditions in five embassies including that of Ghana, Singapore, Malaysia, Ethiopia and the Czech Republic, but no challans have been issued to them as the civic-body doesn't have an authority to do so.

Similarly, heavy mosquito breeding was found in Mausam Bhawan, Safdarjung airport nursery and railway nursery.

The action comes in wake of the rising number of cases from the vector-borne disease which shot to an alarming 2,000 mark.

The death toll due to the disease rose to 11 today with a six-year-old boy and a woman succumbing to it.

The South Delhi Municipal Council (SDMC) has also issued over 80 challans to government and educational institutions in the city, including JNU, DDA, DTC and PWD for breeding of mosquitoes in their premises.

Dengue, a vector-borne disease, is transmitted by several species of mosquito within the genus Aedes. Symptoms include fever, headache, muscle and joint pains, and a characteristic skin rash that is similar to measles.

Doctors say treatment is symptomatic with no specific cure, so if patients use pain medicines indiscriminately there is a risk of becoming resistant to these.