Get malaria act together, public works department told

The civic body has written a warning letter to the public works department. It has said that if the department doesn’t carry out anti-malaria action properly, the corporation can take action against it under section 381 of the BMC Act.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had asked all the central government agencies having buildings in the city to clean their water tanks to avoid mass breading of mosquitoes. The directives were sent, as these buildings were major mosquito-breeding spots.

When BMC’s squad inspected the PWD sites, it found that the work had not been done properly. The PWD said that they had treated BDD chawls’ 541 overhead water tanks, while the BMC found 127 of them not properly treated.

Disagreeing with PWD’s claims, BMC’s pesticide department has asked it to do the treatment again. “If the PWD doesn’t carry out the work again, we will take action and it will have to pay us a heavy fine then,” said an official from the pesticide department. The BMC said that the chawls in Worli, Naigaum and Lower Parel had not been properly treated.