the goan I network
MARGAO
One hundred and thirty cases in 11 days. That’s the number of dengue cases that has come to light for the month of October till date in the commercial capital, indicating there’s no let up in dengue in the city.
Sadly, the Margao Urban Health Centre, which has been waging a battle against dengue with its back to the wall, is yet to receive the much-needed support from the powers that be and government agencies in the form of manpower, vehicles, etc to arrest the spread of dengue.
Health officials in private concede that the figure of 130 cases for 11 days is indeed on a higher side, with 12 new cases reported every day on an average.
Margao Urban Health Centre, Dr Anju Kharangate, who had a review meeting of the dengue situation in the city on Friday, said the ongoing operations have been hampered for want of manpower shortage to carry out fogging and anti-larvae operations across the city.
With just 10 health workers at its disposal, Dr Kharangate and the health centre had been battling the dengue situation with its back to the wall. A fortnight ago, Health Director Dr Jose D’Sa and other health officials had descended at the Urban Health Centre to review the situation upon a request from citizens, including Sanjeev Raiturkar and councillor Ketan
Kurtarkar.
While it was decided that the Health Directorate would approach the government for additional manpower for the Urban Health Centre, what has been received by the centre till date is just three workers from the Margao Municipal Council upon a request from Dr
Kharangate.
“The Health centre is in urgent need of manpower to undertake anti-larvae and fogging operations across the length and breadth of the city. Though we have undertaken spraying operations, we have not got the desired result till date because of the heavy rainfall and the sheer magnitude of the problem,” she added.
Incidentally, while the powers that be, including the local MLAs and political leaders claim huge following in both Margao and Fatorda, none of the political leaders have positively responded to Dr Kharangate’s call to the people to form citizens’ groups in the city, more so to spread awareness amongst the populace.
