South City to devise five-year plan for mosquito control

The Dhaka South City Corporation will devise a five-year plan for mosquito elimination from the city.

Under the plan, the city corporation, in its office, will set up a separate cell named Communicable Diseases Research and Control Department.

Dhaka South Mayor Sayeed Khokon rolled on the plan, while announcing the corporation’s budget for fiscal year 2019-20 on Sunday at the Nagarbhaban.

The mayor announced the budget, involving Tk3631.40 crore, registering an increase of Tk32.65 crore from the last fiscal’s, with a special focus on mosquito elimination.

This year, the corporation has allocated more than Tk50 crore, a 67-percent increase as compared to the last fiscal’s, for the mosquito control programme.

Of the amount, some Tk43 crore will be spent to purchase insecticides and perform monitoring, while Tk7 crore will be utilised to procure mosquito control machinery.

During the last fiscal, the south city corporation spent Tk19.52 crore for mosquito control, Tk6.48 crore less than what had originally been allocated.

Of the total budget, almost 80 percent will be spent for development purposes, some 17 percent to meet operation costs, and the rest has been allocated for other expenses.

Some 67 percent of the total expense will come from government funds and foreign aids, while the rest from the corporation’s own income.

During the budget announcement, Mayor Khokon upheld his successes, including bringing the city under 100 percent LED lightings and renovation of parks and playgrounds, during his tenure in office.

“We have brought the entire DSCC jurisdiction under 100 percent LED lights. We also reduced water-logging largely,” said he.

Nowadays, there is no waterlogging in Shantinagar and Nazirabazar areas which used to go under water every rainy season, Khokon added.

After the budget announcement, a question-answer session began where journalists asked Mayor Khokon different questions and the mayor replied to them.

As he was asked about the reasons for late announcement of the budget of this fiscal, Khokon said a sudden outbreak of dengue in the city caused the delay.

He said that salaries for corporation employees and staff and other costs were met by passing a partial budget at the board meeting of the corporation.

Khokhon, however, refrained from replying to another query about his failure to evict street vendors from pavements in Gulistan.