the goan I network
MARGAO
Dengue cases touched a whopping 206 figure mark on Wednesday for the current month of October in the commercial capital, with 25 fresh cases reported in the city on Wednesday. However, the scary situation does not seem to have spurred the authorities to get their act together and lend a helping hand to the beleaguered Margao Urban Health centre to keep dengue at bay.
Consider this: With the Margao Urban Health Centre hit by manpower crunch, Health Officer Dr Anju Kharangate knocked the doors of the District Magistrate last week with a plea to get the various agencies on board not only to make available the manpower, but extend help in the cleanliness of the town.
While Health officials were hoping that the district Magistrate would call a meeting with the heads of agencies this week, it has now come to light that the proposed meeting will take place only mid-next week, making one wonder whether the outbreak of dengue in the commercial capital is not on the priority list of the authorities.
Take note, the Margao Urban Health officer had approached the District Magistrate for the sole purpose of issuing directions to the concerned agencies to do their bit in the ongoing anti-dengue operations, including providing manpower, clean up of clogged
nullahs, etc.
That’s not all. With Hospicio under the scanner of the health officials with doctors, nurses, and even security guards falling prey to dengue in the hospital, many must have expected the government-run hospital to get the surrounding cleaned by getting rid of the thick vegetation, bushes and potential mosquito breeding grounds on
priority.
Sadly, cleaning of the Hospicio premises is not being taken up with the seriousness it deserves.
Inquiries by The Goan have revealed that while Hospicio Medical Superintendent Dr Ira Almeida has roped in a couple of labourers for the clean-up operation, with the PWD and GSIDC, which looks after the hospital upkeep and maintenance nowhere around, the ongoing work has not kept pace with the
requirements.
While Dr Ira claimed that the labourers were engaged in the clean-up operation two days ago, it will take a couple of days more to get rid of the thick vegetation. Inc
identally, a joint meeting of the Margao Health officials, MMC Chief Officer Sidhivinayak Naik with Health Director Dr Jose D’Sa was held with citizens, Sanjeev Raiturcar and MMC Councilor Ketan Kurtarkar at the Urban health centre last month, but the promised action is still not forthcoming from the agencies.
When the Urban Health Centre was anxiously awaiting for the MMC to make available at least 10 labourers at its disposal to help the Centre in the anti-larvae and fogging operations, what the health centre finally received from the local civic body were just four labourers.
That the city is still not dengue free is evident by the fact that the Margao Urban Health Centre received as many as fresh 25 cases on Wednesday, taking the number of dengue cases in the commercial capital to 206 for the month of October so far.
