The South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) said it has sent 106 legal notices and filed 77 prosecutions against the owners and caretakers of premises for presence of mosquito larvae during its recent drive from May 2 to May 6.
Sharing the findings of the “special drive” to identify and eradicate mosquito breeding hotspots, the SDMC on Monday added that of all the notices issued and prosecutions filed, 14 legal notices and eight prosecutions were issued to government departments.
Of the 771 construction sites and 461 government offices inspected by the SDMC’s Public Health Department during the special drive, mosquito breeding was found in 168 construction sites and 25 government offices, the civic body said. It emphasised that mosquito breeding was detected at locations such as the Delhi Jal Board’s booster pumping station in the city’s Deer Park, CPWD’s ITD construction in Sewa Nagar and other areas.
Eliminating ‘mother foci’
The SDMC said its focus lies on detecting and eradicating the ‘mother foci’ of the Aedes mosquito, which when infected, spread the dengue virus.
“The mother foci is the grass-root level source of mosquito breeding that takes place round the year, in hidden places. And they spread across once the monsoon hits, we aim to eradicate these spots before the monsoon, as it would help reduce the number of breeding spots,” a senior SDMC official said.
During the months of May and June, the SDMC — the city’s nodal agency for data collection on vector-borne diseases — carries out special drives at non-residential places, vacant plots, water bodies, and water installations to detect and destroy mosquito larvae.
The city’s total caseload for this season, from January to April stands at 82 (till May 7). However, more than half of the cases (54) remain ‘untraced after investigation’.
This season, every month from January to April has registered dengue cases in double digits. Whereas the caseload never crossed single digits from 2017 to 2021 over the same period, except for April 2021, when 10 cases were registered.
Last year, the city recorded 9,613 cases of dengue and 23 deaths while over 2,900 cases were marked ‘untraced after investigation’ — the worst outbreak since 2015 which saw 15,867 cases and 60 deaths.
