BHUBANESWAR: Despite repeated outbreak of dengue in the State Capital during monsoon in the recent years, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC)’s plan to procure adequate fogging machines to contain mosquito breeding and check vector-borne diseases has remained just in papers.
After the rapid spike in dengue cases in 2021 that reached close to 600 by the end of July, BMC decided to procure 36 portable fogging machines and two vehicle-mounted fogging machines to fight the dengue menace.
The plan had been finalised to ensure at least one fogging machine for two wards to carry out the mosquito control drive. Portable machines had been planned because of the convenience it would provide in reaching out to inaccessible areas. Sources, however, said the plan was scrapped after it gathered dust for the last two years.
Currently, the civic body has only eight fogging machines which are mostly vehicle mounted. The vehicles, however, are proving inadequate in fogging all the wards. Some locals who criticised the BMC for its failure to have the machines in adequate numbers, pointed out that the money spent to outsource drone to contain mosquito breeding last year, should have been invested in procurement of these machines.
A senior official from the BMC said that tender process has recently been finalised to procure 20 vehicle-mounted fogging machines. The equipment will be procured at an investment of Rs 3 lakh each by this month, he said.
Meanwhile, the civic body in its corporation meeting decided that the source reduction drive will be intensified in the city from Saturday. Apart from awareness campaign and weekly dry day observation, city health officer has been asked to engage two workers in each ward for anti-larval measures. Sources said five more dengue cases were reported in Bhubaneswar taking the total number reported in the city so far to 87.