DOT Desk: [2] “After assuming office (on May 16, 2020) amid the Covid-19 pandemic and Dengue epidemic, I have given topmost priority to containing the mosquito menace as per the directive of the Honourable Prime Minister and reshuffled the overall work plan to this end,” DSCCC Mayor Barrister Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh told BSS in an interview at his Nagar Bhaban office, reports The Daily Star.

[3] In accordance with the reshuffled work plan, he said, the DSCC has initiated well-coordinated activities to be continued in all the 75 wards under its jurisdiction throughout the year on daily basis.

[4] The mayor said that as per the work-plan, DSCC is being equipped with necessary trained manpower, modern equipment, and adequate repellants of good quality to control the mosquito menace. He also added that due to their timely and prompt measures the city dwellers have breathed a sigh of relief, in comparison to 2019.

[5] Barrister Taposh said, “After taking over as mayor, we have purchased 375 fogger, 400 hand-spray and 25 wheelbarrow machines to give a boost to DSCC’s adulticiding and larviciding activities.”
The mayor said, “Six workers with 12 fogger machines have been working in each ward in two shifts — from 9am to 1pm and 2:30pm-6pm — for conducting adulticiding activities while a supervisor has been appointed in every ward to supervise and coordinate the mosquito curbing works.”

DSCC has appointed for the first time an insecticide control officer on permanent basis, he said.

The mayor said that they have also appointed four new assistant health officers against few posts that were vacant for a long time.

He said a total of 1,050 workers, 14 each in every 75 wards, have been working to check the mosquito menace.

Barrister Taposh said they, for the first time, are imparting basic training on how to destroy the breeding grounds of Culex and Aedes mosquitoes to the newly recruited mosquito control workers and supervisors.

“We have taken a hard-and-fast rule in receiving repellants. We are conducting three tests of the chemicals before using those in grassroots. If it fails in any of the three tests, we are not receiving the repellants,” he added.

There was also a question about sufficiency of the insecticides, the mayor said, adding that they are currently importing mosquito repellants through renowned local firms.

Barrister Taposh said DSCC has been conducting mobile courts alongside the regular works that included anti-mosquito activities and awareness campaigns to destroy the breeding grounds of Aedes mosquito in controlling dengue.