Kolkata: Three-year-old’s dengue death spooks Lake Town

KOLKATA: A day after the death of a three-year-old boy from Lake Town’s Ward 30 from dengue, the area remained under the fear of the deadly fever. Barely a month ago, another dengue death was reported from Ward 29.
Barely 50 metres from Meera Tower, where three-year-old Aharshi Dhar lived, stagnant water was found on a plot of land where construction is underway.The water got accumulated in the space dug for laying the foundation of a building before the piling work began. This has made the plot a potential breeding ground for dengue-spreading mosquitoes. “There are several such examples in the area that are clearly violating the basic anti-dengue measures. We tried to alert the civic authority and spread awareness among the locals. But our pleas seem to have fallen on deaf ears,” said Shakti Prasad Pal, a resident of Meera Tower.
_{Barely 50 metres from Meera Tower, where three-year-old Aharshi Dhar lived, stagnant water was found on a plot of land where construction is underway}
“There is a vacant plot with a number of puddles behind our apartment. It had grown marshy and turned into a potential breeding ground for mosquitoes. Municipal workers cleared it on Tuesday morning. But the damage has been done. We lost a child ,” Pal said.
According to Elizabeth Dey, a resident of Block A, Lake Town, locals are scared now. “We are keeping all the doors and windows closed throughout the day. We also use mosquito repellents daily. Despite the fact that the deadly fever is refusing abate in the area, I am not sure if the civic authority is taking any concrete step to end the menace,” she said.
Ward 30 Manas Ranjan Roy felt that the 15-acre plot, which houses the office and a hostel of the ministry of labour, can also be a breeding ground for mosquitoes. “We have asked the department to clean up the bush inside. We are ready to clean it up for them if they want. But we cannot force entry into the place,” Roy said.
On Tuesday, garbage, allegedly thrown by locals, was seen dumped along the outer wall of the plot. “Around 50 students stay in the hostel. Apart from that, a few employees live in the quarters on the campus. Nobody has had dengue fever in past few years,” an employee said, brushing aside any allegation of negligence.
A section of locals, pointed out the water at the Lake Town swimming pool. “We have asked the civic authority to keep an eye on that. Moreover, there are a few open vats in the vicinity that are sources of mosquito-related problems,” Pal said.
Sharan Pal Singh, another resident of Block A, said people have to stop throwing garbage out in the open. “You will often find garbage piled up near the lake opposite the residential area. They do not even use a garbage bin and throw the waste by the lake,” Singh said.