The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) has announced that the civic body will impose a fine on apartments, malls and other buildings with stagnant water that pose as a breeding ground for mosquito larvae. Since intermittent rains in the city are creating more breeding grounds for mosquitoes, the corporation has issued warnings to all residential complexes, individual homes as well as malls, shops and other commercial areas.
GCC officials said they are taking steps to prevent the spread of dengue and will penalise residents and establishments if mosquitoes are found breeding in their premises. According to health officials, the city has reported nine dengue cases in July this year till as on Tuesday, July 13, while in June there were only three cases of dengue.
The officials said that during the north-east monsoon which brings heavy rain, the mosquito eggs are washed away. But during the present south-west monsoon, the intermittent rain leaves puddles of water, leading to breeding of mosquitoes. The GCC’s health department has already deployed several squads across the corporation limits. This has been done to locate stagnant water bodies and spray insecticides to destroy the mosquito larvae.
The civic body has chalked out a plan and would conduct inspections near the residences of patients suffering from dengue. House owners found in violation will be served a notice for the first violation, a Rs 100 fine for the second and a Rs 500 fine for the third. A fine of Rs 500 will be levied on apartment complexes for the first violation, Rs 5000 for the second time and Rs 15,000 for the third violation. Small shops would be fined Rs 500, Rs 2000 and Rs 5000 for the first, second, and third violations respectively. Government buildings, commercial establishments and industries will have to pay Rs 10,000 for the first violation, Rs 25,000 for the second and Rs 1,00,000 for the third violation.
A GCC official told IANS, "The Corporation will conduct surprise inspections at residential complexes, shops and commercial buildings as well as individual homes and flats to find whether there is stagnant water in their premises. Except for individual homes where we will serve a notice, in all other places we will levy a fine from the first violation itself. People have to be more responsible to contain diseases spread by mosquitoes and if no action is taken, there will not be any positive results."