Foggy facts in a fuel fib

HAS ANYBODY seen Lucknow Municipal Corporation?s fogging machines in action? Not even the LMC bosses have an answer to that. But the corporation?s health department officials requisition nearly 53,000 litres diesel for the two fogging machines, while 30 litres of diesel is issued per day for jeeps carrying the machines. There is obviously nobody to check where the fuel goes because the fogging machines are never seen at work anywhere.

HAS ANYBODY seen Lucknow Municipal Corporation’s fogging machines in action? Not even the LMC bosses have an answer to that. But the corporation’s health department officials requisition nearly 53,000 litres diesel for the two fogging machines, while 30 litres of diesel is issued per day for jeeps carrying the machines. There is obviously nobody to check where the fuel goes because the fogging machines are never seen at work anywhere.

HT Image

Municipal commissioner and nagar swasthya adhikari both claimed that the LMC had started fogging Aliganj and Vikas Nagar but did not have the chart to prove it. The municipal commissioner had directed the nagar swasthya adhikari to prepare a schedule of fogging in the city and release a copy of it to the Press too, so that citizens had prior information about fogging in their respective area.

But till Monday the nagar swasthya adhikari had not prepared or released any chart to the Press. Once the chart was carried by the media, residents would expect it to be carried out. but since LMC does not have any such agenda, it can carry on saving themselves from justifying the massive fuel use.

According to the nagar swasthya adhikari, fogging work has been carried out in Aliganj and Vikas Nagar but they are unable to name the spot where fogging took place, if at all it did. Residents say they have yet to see the fogging machines. Saurabh Bhargava of Aliganj says, “We face the mosquito nuisance and so far some cases of suspected dengue too have been reported from the area.”

Additional municipal commisioner AC Sinha says, “Lucknow Municipal Corporation gives 53,000 litres diesel per year for the two fogging machines. The diesel is utilised to generate fog in the machines. Besides, 30 litres diesel per day is issued to for jeeps in which these machines are moved.” He added, “There is no system to check the amount of fogging that taken place at a particular place after a day or even after few hours. Staff can take advantage but we keep verifying data from residents.”