High Court directs State to swat down mosquitoes

The Madras High Court Bench here on Tuesday directed the Chief Secretary as well as Health Secretary to take effective steps to control breeding of mosquitoes by ensuring that civic bodies and other agencies take serious measures in both rural and urban areas.

A Division Bench of Justices A. Selvam and P. Kalaiyarasan also ordered that the two officials should take immediate steps to prevent spread of vector-borne diseases across the State. The interim order was passed on a public interest litigation petition filed by K.K. Ramesh of Centre for Public Interest Litigation, an NGO here.

The petitioner had claimed that dengue and chikungunya were a cause for great concern to public health.

As per the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme, 74,454 people suffered from dengue fever and 167 of them died in 2013 alone.

Contesting the case, additional government pleader D. Muruganantham contended that the State government was taking all effective steps to control the mosquito menace.

Monitoring committees

District-level committees headed by the respective Collectors and a State-level committee led by the Chief Secretary were monitoring the situation periodically.

Refusing to buy the argument, Mr. Justice Selvam said: “What is the point in constituting committees when decisions taken by them do not get reflected on the ground. Open sewage and mosquito breeding are a common sight everywhere. We don’t see fogging operations take place anywhere. It does not happen regularly even on the High Court campus.”

Vandiyur lake

When the AGP contended that the PIL petitioner had failed to mention specific places where the officials had not taken steps to control breeding of mosquitoes, the judge said: “Sir, it is there everywhere in Tamil Nadu. Can’t you see what is the state of Vandiyur waterbody in Madurai. It has turned into a open ground for letting out sewage.”