Attempts to Curb city’s mosquito menace futile
Over Rs 2,50,000 spent by corporation in the past 5 years on eradication programmes
By : DC Correspondent
Update: 2015-05-25 05:37 GMT
KOCHI: Kochi, famous for its serene backwaters, is notorious for its mosquitoes that make nights miserable for both residents and tourists. Many corporation councils have come and gone but there has not been any improvement when it comes to this predicament. With another election on the horizon, a battle on the mosquito menace between the LDF and UDF is on the cards. While, the BJP-led NDA would ask citizens to give it a chance to alter the situation for the better.
But Kochiites know that unless the political leadership of all affiliations show absolute will, there will not be much of a change. Kochi corporation has 75 divisions and there are adjacent civic bodies including Tripu-nithura, Kalamassery and Thrikkakara municipalities and Cheran-ellore grama panchayat in the West and other panchayats in the coastal areas which too are infested by mosquitoes.
The Kochi corporation for the past five years has been spending as much as Rs 50,000 per year in each ward for eradication of mosquitoes and also cleaning up the environs for the purpose. In wards where the attack is more virulent, this amount was spent twice a year. But despite the measures, residents complained that last year the Tony Chammany administration showed laxity in its anti-mosquito drive. Last year, interestingly the corporation brought in a Russian-made electro fogging machine to test-combat the menace.
Tony Chammany, during the demonstration of the machine, had announced that the local body would consider buying the Russian electro fogging machine, worth US$2000, if the health department approved the proposal. However, this was not followed up as the corporation authorities did not find it useful for Kochi.
In 2013, the civic body had purchased four big high-tech fogging machines and 20 small hand-held sprayers at a cost of Rs 1 lakh per big machine and Rs 30, 000 per small sprayer. However, when RTI queries were submitted last year, the corporation said it had no details of its own eradication projects and the amount spent. The officials said fogging and chemical spraying were continuing while saline water spraying was discontinued due to objections raised by the AG’s office. The AG’s office objected to this flus-hing as the corporation spent Rs 69.92 lakh on it without adequate documents.