In a meeting of the Kozhikode Municipal Corporation (KMC), the councillors decided to intensify the clean-up drive because of the rising number of cases of fever in the city. The drive is a part of the Haritha Keralam project.
During the meeting, the councillors gave an account of the steps taken so far and the steps to be taken in order to control the situation. Mayor Thottathil Raveendran informed the council that the corporation was ready to take whatever steps needed to control the situation.
“We are employing nine lorries to carry waste within one week. If more are needed, we shall hire them. If more cleaning staff is required, they will be hired on daily wages. If any ward requires more funds for their cleaning activities, the same shall be arranged. Six doctors have been newly appointed in health centres under the corporation,” the Mayor said.
Mosquito breeding
The Municipal will work towards eliminating mosquito breeding at the source. This will help in reducing the problem at the source itself. Further, those residents who fail to comply with the civic authorities will be heaving fined, as stated by Dr. R. S. Gopakumar, Heath Office, KMC. He also added that the problem of mosquito breeding is mainly because the residents still believe that it is solely the job of the corporation to carry out source level mosquito reduction/elimination.
According to Dr. Gopakumar, the fever situation was tackled in a much better way this year as the pre-monsoon cleaning and breeding checks were carried out properly. A meeting of doctors would be convened soon to discuss longer working hours of the health centres.