The Health Standing Committee of the Kochi Corporation was asked to put its act together to contain the mosquito menace.
The direction came from the Kochi Mayor Tony Chammany as the civic administration was cornered by the Opposition councillors as well as a section of the Congress councillors for its failure in checking the pest’s attack.
The Opposition adopted a new agitation strategy in the council with its councillors gagging their mouths with black cloth and displaying caricatures which made fun of the civic administrators.
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Though T.K. Ashraf, chairman of the Health Standing Committee, who explained about the steps taken by the local body to curb the menace, invited suggestions from the councillors, no one responded to it. He said men and machines were being used for fogging and other pest eradication measures. The pest attack was nothing new to the local body and the earlier civic administrations too had a tough time containing the menace, he explained. Unsatisfied with the explanation of the Health Chairman, Leno Jacob, a Congress councillor, walked out of the council meeting.
Later, Congress councillors K.R. Premakumar, Shaila Thaddeus, A.R. Padmadas and Thampi Subramaniam levelled criticisms against the Health Standing Committee and called for the intervention of the Kochi Mayor to save the situation. Many councillors complained that they were not aware of the fogging operations in their divisions as claimed by the Health Standing Committee chairman. In his reply, Mr. Chammany asked the Health Standing Committee chairman to prepare a schedule of fogging operations and inform the local councillors about the service. He said that the funds for division-level mosquito control measures were released.