Hyderabad: Mosquito menace; residents squeal against official apathy

Despite the entomology wing of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) claiming that it is constantly carrying out anti-larva operations in all zones, residents of several colonies, especially from the Old City, are complaining regularly about mosquito menace. Their grievance is mosquito stings are making them spends sleepless nights.

Most complaints are from areas like Doodh Bowli, Char Mahal, Deccan Colony, Koka Tatti, Hussaini Alam, Moosa Bowli and Mir Chowk (under Charminar and Bahadurpura constituencies).

Similar complaints are pouring in from areas abutting the Musi like Shastripuram Colony, Hassan Nagar, Suleman Nagar, Attapur, Bharath Nagar and Bapu Ghat (Rajendranagar) where people are complaining about impassive attitude of the wing staff towards their grievance.

"Mosquitoes are not letting us sleep, neither during night nor day time. We filed several complaints on the GHMC site and even brought them to the notice of local entomology wing, but have not received any response. All our squealing falls on deaf ears," rued Syed Shoukat Ali, a resident of Shastripuram Colony.

Citizens are even complaining that the wing staff are only working for local leaders and not paying heed to genuine concerns of residents.

Mohd Mohsin Shoeb of Hussaini Alam said: "every effort, from using high end air-coolers to mosquito repellents, to ward off mosquitoes is fetching no result. Even bringing the issue to the notice of concerned officials and staff falls on deaf ears, as they are taking it to local leaders for approval before providing relief. Heaps of garbage and mosquitoes make us pay through the nose every day."

Affirming the same, Uday Kiran, Assistant Entomologist, GHMC Rajedranagar, said: "we are receiving several complaints, especially from Bharath Nagar to Bapu Ghat. There are around 10 colonies from the Bharat Nagar-Bapu Ghat stretch suffering mosquitoe menace, as these areas are abutting the Musi, where mosquito issue is perennial. It is being taken care of by the Musi River Front Project officials."

"As far as our operations are concerned", he said, "we are regularly taking up anti-larva operations in targeted areas like fogging, removing water hyacinth from Mir Alam lake area, spraying and releasing oil balls into the Musi. Also, we are taking up indoor residual spraying by deploying separate teams."

"We have to balance between the anti-larva operations and the Covid-19 containment efforts, as both are convulsing again. We have a short team to address all issues at a time. We have a total of six teams for Puranapul and Shalibanda areas.

Each team consists of only two members to address complaints. To handle the situation, we have adopted a need-based approach in cases being reported intermittently in the area," informed Assistant Entomologist, GHMC Puranapul division, Chandulal.