TIRUCHY: With monsoon approaching, Corporation officials are taking steps to prevent outbreak of dengue in the city. However, these very same officials need to take a close look at their offices.
Currently, most vacant areas behind corporation office buildings are home to thousands of dumpsters removed from city roads. These huge open bins turn breeding ground for mosquitoes and make a mockery of the civic body’s drive against dengue. The bins are already fertile breeding grounds for mosquitoes as rain in the last few days has left many of them filled with water.
Ironically, the Corporation is asking residents to check their premises to eliminate mosquito breeding sites but has overlooked its offices.
Last year, the civic body imposed a penalty on residents on whose premises mosquito larvae were found. Sources said the civic body would take similar steps this year.
Residents, meanwhile, stated the civic body should clean its own office premises before implementing any such decision. “The Corporation should take measures to clean its office premises. It should ensure the premises do not have any mosquito breeding sites. Otherwise, what is the whole point in advising residents when the civic body itself is not following its anti-dengue directives?” asked R Ananthakrishnan, a resident who visited the corporation office on Wednesday.
The Corporation has not even cleared the garbage out of dumpsters kept in the Ponmalai zonal office. Sanitation workers said it was not easy to check the condition of these bins. “It is not easy to check the dumpsters placed in corporation offices as they are kept very close to each other. If some bins contain stagnant water, we would be unable to remove it,” a sanitation worker said.
Corporation Commissioner N Ravichandran assured he would take the necessary steps to sort out the issue. “I will ask officials to inspect the office premises. We would take the necessary measures to prevent mosquito breeding in our office premises,” he said.
Let’s hope he keeps his word.