Mangaluru :  Mangaluru City South MLA D. Vedavyas Kamath and team begin Mosquito larvae inspection around houses in Mannagudde as part of Dengue Drive on Sunday morning

A Mosquito larvae was found breeding inside truck bodies outside the Barke Police Station building here on Sunday even as residents said that this was the reason for malarial infection in some of them in the area.

Mohan Achar, a local BJP activist, took Mr. Kamath to the two trucks that were seized by the Barke Police. The MLA climbed up the luggage rack to find mosquito larvae breeding in the accumulated water on the trucks. Mr. Achar told the MLA that some of the residents recently recovered from malarial infection in the area.

District Health and Family Welfare Officer M. Ramakrishna Rao and District Disease Surveillance Officer Navinchandra Kulal checked the mosquito breeding spots and directed the police to spray Temephos over the water accumulated on seized vehicles that will prevent breeding of larvae. Finding several water bottles and tea cups dumped in the drain adjoining the police station, Dr. Rao asked Barke Police to take steps to clear the waste at the earliest.

Earlier, Mr. Kamath and a team of officials visited an old hospital in the locality and found water accumulated in empty soft drink bottles outside the hospital canteen. While asking the staff to clear the bottles, Dr. Rao asked them to remove a discarded tender coconut and a plastic water glass in the hospital’s lawn. “Please be guarded against such articles where mosquito breed,” Dr. Rao advised the staff.

The Dengue Drive on Sunday started from Mr. Kamath’s residence near Lady Hill Circle in the morning. Dr. Rao, Mangaluru City Corporation Commissioner Mohammed Nazir, activist Suresh Shetty, Dr. Kulal and several residents of Mannagudde joined the exercise. After a brief presentation about the nature of mosquito larvae and ways to clear breeding sites, Mr. Kamath and other officials went around the place. Then, they visited houses in the area. The first house they visited was that of an elderly woman living opposite the house of Mr. Kamath. After Dr. Kulal showed the woman a bottle containing larvae, she asked her relative to clear water accumulated in plates placed below flower pots kept on the compound wall. The team also visited a site where construction is going on and advised the staff there against stocking water for more than seven days. It asked them to make use of mosquito repellents to avoid mosquito bite.

Members of Bengre Vidhyarthi Sangha observed Dengue Drive by overturning idle fishing boats in Bengre village that contained fresh rainwater.

Personnel from the district administration who were on source clearance work for the last 15 days were given off on Sunday.

“We gave them off on Sunday as they have been working tirelessly for the last two weeks,” Deputy Commissioner Sasikanth Senthil S. said.

Five different teams were working on source reduction since July 21. While one team was involved in collecting information from private hospitals on those affected by viral fever, another tabulated the information and planned source reduction for the day. A team of 300 people were deployed for clearing sources divided into different grids, another was involved in indoor fogging. The fifth team of about 200 members was involved in clearing clogged drains.