The Madras High Court has said that the callous attitude of citizens towards maintaining cleanliness and hygiene in their surroundings is the primary reason for the spread of diseases like dengue.
Referring to the lyrics of a song from an old Tamil film, which states that theft cannot be eradicated unless the thieves decide to mend their ways, the court said those lines would equally apply to people who don’t care about the environment.
Justice S. Vaidyanathan said that the courts too were a party to the sordid state of affairs by ordering the regularisation of encroachments made on waterways and canals. Noting that the construction of buildings on water channels leads to stagnation, he said, “In some cases, this court is also a party to it by attempting to regularise the buildings contrary to the statutes, even though the apex court has passed several verdicts to remove encroachments.”
Recalling an article that appeared on the front page of The Hindu on November 14, 1985, explaining how the then Chief Minister M.G. Ramachandran had shifted his residence to a hotel due to heavy rainfall and floods and the consequent water logging due to encroachment of water bodies and unauthorised constructions, he said the situation had not changed for the better since then, and had in fact become worse. “In this State, many think laws are made only to break or violate. When a person from India goes to Singapore, he is able to throw used cups, cans etc. only in dust bins. But, unfortunately, as soon as he lands in India, he feels that the open place itself is a dust bin,” the judge said. He lamented the prevalence of such an attitude despite the Tamil Nadu Public Health Act of 1939 imposing a statutory duty on citizens to maintain their surroundings in a clean manner.
Listing out several instances of how the garbage thrown on the roads and open drains leads to the clogging of water channels and the consequent stagnation during rains, he said, “The State has become a virtual breeding ground for mosquitoes and a playground for stray cattle, dogs and pigs. Even though the government officials are taking steps to curtail further menace, residents should co-operate to save themselves from health hazards, since many of the citizens themselves are violators of law.”
Turning to the government machinery, which continues to maintain that diseases such as dengue are under control, the judge said the assertion relating to control was itself evidence of the prevalence of the disease. He also referred to another news item that appeared in The Hindu in January this year, on how two judges of the Madurai Bench demonstrated the severity of the mosquito menace by asking their staff to zap down the mosquitoes in a centrally air-conditioned court hall.
