Mangalore : Health and Family Welfare Minister U T Khader has advised the builders to assign the task of cleaning the stagnant water, to a construction worker in every construction site.

The said worker should clean the water once in a week. This will be a major step towards preventing mosquito breeding in construction sites and controlling malaria in the city.

He was speaking at malaria awareness programme organised by Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India (CREDAI), Mangalore in association with Mangalore City Corporation here on Wednesday.

Expressing concern over the growing number of malaria cases in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts, the Minister said that 61 per cent of the malaria cases in the State are found in undivided DK district. Of the 5,329 cases in DK, 4,822 cases are traced in Mangalore alone. Mangalore has become the source of epidemic diseases, he said.

Inviting CREDAI’s co-operation to revive lakes, which will automatically create a good atmosphere in the city, he insisted the Association to adopt a lake on a pilot project and develop it. Such initiatives will have a long lasting effect than organising awareness programmes.

“You (builders) construct beautiful apartments in the city, but do you give a comfortable environment to the people living there? Flat owners end up closing all their doors and windows and live in suffocation due to fear of mosquitoes. This should not happen,” he said.

Meanwhile, commenting on rumours of Ebola traced in Karnataka, he suggested people to pass on SMSes and messages on Whatsapp to create awareness on malaria and dengue rather than on Ebola, as the former requires attention at the moment.

Committee chalks plans

Key-speaker, Consultant Physician Dr B Srinivas Kakkillaya placed three step agenda to prevent the onslaught of malaria. He insisted the builders to give the task to one of the workers of maintaining cleanliness in construction site, provide mosquito nets to all the workers in the site and to find an alternative to water for curing.

“The committee formed by the MCC which includes me, has chalked some plans to improve the prevailing situation. We have proposed to divide the city into six areas and allot each division to a particular private hospital. Any construction site worker who suffers from water borne disease can approach the designated hospital and avail free treatment. The cost will be borne by the government,” he said.

The committee is also co-ordinating with a software company to develop an Android application to maintain malaria data in a hassle-free way. With it, the doctors and health officers can assess the malaria reports right in their phones.

Dr Kakkillaya took a dig at the health department for twisting the facts of malaria cases.

In reality, the cases are much more in number than that is shown by the department. The first thing that the department has to do, is to accept the fact and then rectify it, he said.

Mangalore Mayor Mahabala Marla warned of closing the laboratories that do not report malaria cases to the Mangalore City Corporation.