Special drive to control mosquito menace

Visakhapatnam: District Collector Praveen Kumar on Tuesday said a 4-day special drive would be launched in the district from Wednesday to control breeding of mosquitoes, which have been causing malaria and dengue, both in urban and rural areas.The Collector held a review meeting in this regard here. He said the drive was being launched on the directive of the State government to control the seasonal diseases.

He said teams at mandal and village level should visit every habitation and colonies and create awareness among the people on the seasonal diseases and the preventive steps they should take which include drinking safe water, maintaining cleanliness both in the house and in the surroundings.

He said the drive should include all the schools in the district so that the students would involve in creating awareness among their family members and people of their locality.The Collector told the health officials to keep medicines ready in all the hospitals and be ready to conduct health camps in areas where most of the cases of malaria and dengue were being reported.

GVMC spl drive Meanwhile, the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) has launched a special drive to contain mosquito menace under the corporation limits as there was a spurt in dengue and viral fevers in the recent times, said Commissioner M Harinarayanan during his field visit to 43 and 45 wards on Tuesday.

The Commissioner who visited A K C Colony, Ramamurthy Pantulu Peta colony, Koribillivari street, Kancharapalem and Gavara Kancharapalem areas, was not satisfied with the cleaning of drains at AKC Colony resulting in mosquito breeding. Interacting with the residents, he said that the spread of mosquitoes could be eradicated only if the surroundings would be kept neat and clean.

Asking the residents to be careful about individual health, he said the corporation had taken up a special drive to contain the mosquito menace by deploying 20 mobile vehicles for taking up fogging operation and to educate the public.

He also informed that free health camps would also be conducted and in case of fevers, he appealed to the public to see the nearest doctor immediately. Later, he directed the sanitary officials to take up total sanitation and fogging operations in the AKC Colony.When the Commissioner visited Ramamurthy Pantulupet and Koribillivari street, he found mosquito breeding as the drains were choked and asked the sanitary staff to immediately clear the drains.

With regard to the problems of those living under the Kancharapalem flyover, he assured that water supply and public toilets would be provided shortly. He along with sanitary staff, Zonal Commissioner Ramana Murty, Executive Engineer Venugopala Rao and AMOH Dr Murali Mohan inspected all drains even in the narrow streets appealing to public not to store water in vessels not for more than one day.