Mosquito menace rampant in Kadapa

Kadapa: The water in the irrigation canals is contaminated by the drainage water from the houses and shops which have been built over them by the encroachers. They are indiscriminately dumping the garbage and the growth of water hyacinth was one of the major sources for breeding of mosquitoes. 

Highlights:

• Residents allege civic body not taking measures to control breeding of mosquitoes 
•   Corporation has no details about vacant lands in city to serve notices to owners
   

These, in turn, result in the consequent outbreak and spread of viral diseases in the city. Despite the fact the mosquito menace was giving sleepless nights to the public, the civic administration is least bothered, and they just washed off their hands by performing the state government’s prioritised ‘War on Mosquito Scheme (WMS)’ recently in the city. Vacant lands have become breeding grounds for mosquitoes. 

Though aware of this fact, the civic body has remained indifferent, which is evident of the cesspools, stagnant water in the open spaces between the various structures in the city. 

“It is unfortunate that the municipal staff are not responding on the issue though hundreds of residents of our colony are suffering due to the mosquito menace and foul smell emanating from garbage,” said C Nagaraju, a resident of SBI Colony, while speaking to The Hans India here on Saturday. 

Civic authorities are not even bothered to remove the grown bushes and grass along the roads and open spaces in the city. Negligence on the part of the municipality has only helped the mosquitoes to multiply and spread viral fevers in the city, he alleged. When contacted, different departments of the civic body were resorting to blame game without bothering to serve notices on the owners of vacant lands. 

They have not even conducted a survey on vacant lands in the city till date, which measures in thousands of acres. An official of Kadapa Municipal Corporation has admitted that the civic body had no details of vacant lands in the city or their owners. As per the records available with the officials, it was only 173, but the fact remains that the number of vacant lands is in several hundreds. 

Vijaya Durga of Bhavani Nagar said that the residents in their colony were paying a heavy price due to negligence on the part of the civic officials, who were pressuring the civilians to pay the taxes but remaining silent when questioned about the mosquito menace. 

Joint Collector and the in-charge Commissioner for Kadapa Municipal Corporation Siva Reddy said that one of the reasons for the increase in the mosquito menace in the city was the wild growth of bushes, cesspools and stagnated water on the vacant lands. Reddy said that it was difficult to search and find out the owners of such plots. 

“We will continue our efforts based on the registration details. We will trace them and serve notices and collect the vacant land tax from them,” he added.