Are LMC bosses waiting for the worst?
WHERE ARE LMC health spies? They were supposed to be on the move to pre-empt outbreak of epidemic. It seems LMC bosses are going by the routine?no epidemcis before July, wake up after seasonal diseases have done the damage! The worst has already begun with some city localities reporting spread of epidemic, killing of one person so far in Luv Kush Nagar.
WHERE ARE LMC health spies? They were supposed to be on the move to pre-empt outbreak of epidemic. It seems LMC bosses are going by the routine—no epidemcis before July, wake up after seasonal diseases have done the damage! The worst has already begun with some city localities reporting spread of epidemic, killing of one person so far in Luv Kush Nagar.
Who to blame? The LMC, say people. Last year too, 22 people had died in Tehseenganj, Balaganj and other old city areas. The then chief secretary Neera Yadav even suspended Nagar Swasthya Adhikari Sr SK Srivastava for the poor state of old city areas but CMO escaped the punishment due to his clout in the state bureaucratic circles. Last year LMC set up health intelligence units in different zones to counter the spread of communicable diseases. But, they did nothing to control the epidemic, sources said.
The health Intelligence Unit of LMC had 40 vaccinators, who were responsible for reporting any type of communicable diseases in their areas. But deaths surprised them. This year too they have done nothing, said an official.
Citing the reasons behind sudden outbreak of epidemics in various localities of the city Nagar Swathya Adhikari BBS Rathore said, “According to health manual, there is requirement of 2.8 regular safai workers on every 1000 population. The current population of the city is around 30 lakh. It means the city needs nearly 8400 safai workers. We maintain proper cleaning operations with mere 3,283 safai workers. Many of them are not regular”.
With only 3,283 safai workers and 508 daily wagers, it’s hard to maintain colonies and city roads— over 1732 km long, 752 km of Kharanja road and the big nullahs running across, he said.
The area of Luv Kush Nagar was not on the regular cleaning list of the LMC.
“We have already spotted 127 colonies which have been regularly affected by the communicable diseases. We have marked over 80 colonies as sensitive. For the first time, I have directed officials to prepare a list of icecream factories, eateries, biryani houses, chowmein stalls, poori stalls, water and fruit juice stalls. This list would help us act against the defaulters immediately,” said Rathore. He said localities around nullahs would be given special attention, especially the localities around Haider Canal, Sarkata nullah, and other big and small nullahs would constantly remain under the watch.
