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Despite rising cases, anti-mosquito measures yet to pick up, claim residents
Some of the areas that recently reported dengue cases are Jopling Road, LDA Colony, Ashiyana, Krishnanagar, Gomti Nagar Extension, Lalkuan, Indira Nagar, Dalibagh.
Even as the city was reporting a spike in the cases of dengue for the past few days, fogging and larvicidal treatment were yet to pick up in many localities.
Some of the areas that recently reported dengue cases are Jopling Road, LDA Colony, Ashiyana, Krishnanagar, Gomti Nagar Extension, Lalkuan, Indira Nagar, Dalibagh.
Shubh Agarwal, who lives in Gokhlemarg, said, “Not even once fogging or anti-larva spraying was done in my area.”
Suryansh Mishra from Lalkuan, said, “By the evening, the locality sees a swarm of mosquitoes troubling residents. Yet no anti-mosquito measures are taken by the authorities.”
Nagesh of Gomti Nagar Extension echoed a similar sentiment.
Recently, Lucknow Municipal Corporation had launched a drive to visit houses for anti-larva inspections and fogging. Officials had said that if any symptoms of larval infestation were found in a house, then its resident/s would be fined.
LMC has about 36 four-wheelers and 120 two-wheelers equipped with fogging machines, and another 42 cold fogging machines. “The number of personnel available to operate these machines is the same as the number of machines,” said PK Srivastava, LMC city health officer.
Responding to the residents’ claims, city health officer PK Srivastava said, “We allot machines according to the needs of each zone. Some zones are small, and some are larger, so we allocate machines accordingly... Once our teams are done with spraying, we ask residents to give us their feedback in a form, so that our officials can follow up with them if needed.”
Officials said fogging and anti-larva spraying were usually done between 6 am and 7 am, and 5:30 pm and 7 pm.
Meanwhile, the city reported 38 cases of dengue since Saturday, said district malaria officer Ritu Srivastava adding that the total number of cases reported this year reached 284 as of Monday. She added most of the cases were emerging from Indira Nagar, Gomti Nagar, localities near Shaheed Path and Kisan Path, places where construction activities were going on, and places with vacant plots where open dumping was common.
Commenting on the slow progress of the LMC initiative, an official said the drive was facing some challenges, particularly in identifying the owners of vacant plots where garbage was being dumped indiscriminately, making it difficult for them to issue notices or slap fines.
