Dengue-stung Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has roped in star power to tackle the mosquito challenge.
Popular Kannada actor V. Ravichandran and jingles, will feature in an awareness drive that the palike will launch on Wednesday to tackle the menace, with 719 cases being confirmed so far in its jurisdiction, along with 202 cases of chikungunya.
Admitting that Bengaluru has become the ‘nerve centre’ for dengue cases, the palike is looking to tackle the problem head on soon after the civic election process is completed on Tuesday.
Apart from occupying prime time television slots, banners, flexes and street plays, the BBMP will include schools in the awareness drive.
Revealing the details on Monday, BBMP Administrator T.M. Vijay Bhaskar said the number of cases included only those reported within the civic limits.
This means that the number is much higher for the city on the whole, with the State’s Health and Family Welfare Department putting the number at 987 for Bengaluru city, 187 for Bengaluru Urban district and 33 for Bengaluru Rural district as on Monday.
BBMP Commissioner Kumar G. Naik said Bommanahalli (62 cases), Vijaynagar (55) and Rajajinagar (41) had the highest number of cases within BBMP jurisdiction.
Having identified places where mosquitoes breed, teams from the palike will clear larvae from those places.
Of the 3,027 sites identified, 1,513 have been covered, Mr. Vijay Bhaskar said. Though the palike claims no deaths have been reported due to the vector-borne disease so far, the civic body, which is already undertaking regular fogging and spraying, will crack the whip on officials. “If engineers can be suspended, so can doctors. They have to be on the field and submit action taken reports,” Mr. Naik added.
