Death toll on rise as garbage piles up

KOCHI: As many as eleven persons have succumbed to death because of dengue fever, rat fever, jaundice, malaria and the number is still on rise in various parts of the district. But it seems that the authorities are still asleep at wheels. M A Anil Kumar, Councillor, Ilamakkara is of the opinion that the authorities have not taken any measures to remove the waste that has been strewn all around. It has become a grazing field for the stray dogs and rats. “People are still throwing away the waste,” he said. “The rain has stopped. No measures are being taken to clean the stinking drainage. Kochi city is stinking. Diseases cannot be prevented unless measures are taken,” he said.Contaminated water is yet another bottleneck which has to be tackled at the earliest. “There are many places in the city which are reeling under water shortage. As a result, those people have to resort to water supplied by tanker lorries, which are mostly unclean. So the chances for an outbreak of diseases stands very high,” he said. Anil Kumar said that this is the time to increase the frequency of fogging. Here too, the authorities have once again chosen to be nonchalant. He also added that though the authorities are claiming that they are distributing medicines to put a check on the spread of the diseases, it has been restricted to homeo hospitals.  Responding to the issue,  T K Ashraff, Health Standing Chairman said, “We will remove the waste at the earliest. The cleaning work was hit on Wednesday as the workers had to concentrate on removing the migrants from Manappattiparambu.”  The waste which is dumped in the private plots are yet another menace. “We are helpless in this regard as we have no rights to remove the waste dumped in private blocks,” he said.Azeez P K, President, Human Rights Foundation,  District Committee said that the so called measures taken up by the authorities is a gimmick, meant to throw dust in people’s eyes. “The local bodies claim that they have initiated various programmes. But what has come out of it?" he asked.