MARGAO
Dengue has raised its ugly head at the Cutbona fishing jetty ahead of the new fishing season, raising serious questions on the Fisheries department’s ability to reign in on the boat owners to get their migrant labourers screened for vector-borne diseases.
At the beginning of the season, two labourers have become victims of the vector-borne disease. Officials of the Balli Primary Health Centre, which has jurisdiction over Cutbona fishing jetty, told The Goan that both the dengue victims are labourers working at the jetty. While one of the labourers is still undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Chinchinim, the second labourer has been discharged after medication.
While the Directorate of Health Services has set up a centre at the Cutbona jetty for screening of migrant workers for malaria and dengue, The Goan understands that the response from boat owners has been lukewarm, if not poor.
Questions are being raised by the health department whether the fisheries department, which has taken over the Cutbona jetty, will direct the boat owners to get their labourers screened for malaria and dengue. While the centre at Cutbona was set up on July 24, no screening of workers has been carried out.
Says PHC Balli sanitary inspector Tulsidas Naik: “The centre has carried out fogging of the breeding sites in and around the jetty after the dengue cases came to light. We are maintaining a vigil to ensure there’s no outbreak of vector-borne diseases.”
Saying that a screening centre has been set up at the office of the boat owners at the jetty, Naik said the boat owners should get their labourers screened as a precautionary measures. “The screening centre at the jetty is manned by a two-member team. We can depute more health workers if the situation warrants,” Naik added. The ball, however, lies in the court of the fisheries department and the boat owners to get the their workers screened. Information gathered by The Goan has revealed that the response from the boat owners was not too encouraging last year.
While it is an open secret that the jetty plays host to around 5,000 migrant workers, most of whom hail from malaria endemic states such as Odisha and Jharkhand, only 1000-odd workers were screened at the jetty last season. “We had managed to screen only 1000-odd workers last season since there was no response from the boat owners and the fisheries department. The centre had issued around 385 health cards for the workers,” he added.
The jetty had hit the headlines around three years ago after a local resident had succumbed to dengue.
