Having failed to fumigate the city ahead of the rains, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has trained its guns on a different target: officials of its own encroachment department, blaming them for the rampant breeding of mosquitoes. Moreover, civic officials have also shot off 1,200 notices in the last five days to various construction sites, societies and officials for neglecting breeding spots in their areas and creating conditions ripe for another outbreak of dengue or malaria.
The encroachment department came in the firing line because of the mess PMC-run Naidu Hospital finds itself in. There is a lot of discarded clutter and waste which is still lying within the hospital and officials say it’s a disaster waiting to happen. “There is a lot of unused furniture lying in the hospital for almost a year now. We have spotted some mosquitoes here that can spread dengue. We immediately took steps to stop their breeding by spraying insecticide, etc. We have also issued notices to the encroachment department as they failed to clear the clutter before the rainy season. Before it results in an outbreak of vector-borne diseases, we have asked them to clear the hospital,” said Dr Narendra Thakur, assistant medical officer and head of vector-borne department, PMC.
Madhav Jagtap, head of the PMC’s encroachment department, admitted to having received the notices. “Yes, we have received the notices and are working on clusters in the city that are becoming a breeding ground for mosquitoes. We will be announcing an auction, where all the unused furniture, including chairs, tables, beds, measurement equipment, iron rods, etc will be put up. We are also forming a team that would clear the material from other sites which are similarly clogged.”
