Anti-dengue measures in full swing in Madurai, Vellore

In Ramanathapuram district, Collector, S Natarajan, carried out raid at a primary school at Bharathi Nagar. He saw that it was kept unclean and had stagnant water in many places. So, a fine of Rs1 lakh was levied on the school and the school management was directed to maintain the premises clean.

Similarly, a fine of Rs 50, 000 was slapped, by officials of Health Department during their raid, on a private hospital on Devipattinam Road in Ramanathapuram. Similarly at Theni, the government bus depot which was maintained in an unclean manner was levied a fine of Rs 20,000 by the officials. 

The anti-dengue drive which netted a total of Rs12.25 lakh as fine over the last six days is in danger of being derailed following District Collector SA Raman taking a lenient view of government undertakings which cite strained financial circumstances.

On Tuesday, the Collector inspected the premises of a private used car dealer. He found a huge volume of stagnant water and waste material of the company piled high inside the compound. The owner was fined a sum of Rs 25, 000 on the spot. 

But trouble awaited him, when he tried to inspect a house in CMC colony. When he tried to enter the house to inspect the sump, a woman rebuked him. As a result, officials beat a hasty retreat. 

Following this, Corporation Health Superintendent, Y Sasikumar lodged a complaint with the Sathuvachary police against the woman Zeenath, grand daughter of Mariamma, former municipal councillor for preventing government officials from doing their duty. Mariamma later apologised to the collector. She also later came to the Collectorate to apologise in person. 

Collector Raman visited the office of Vellore TNSTC (Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation) at Rangapuram on the Vellore-Chennai National Highway. He inspected a ground-level water tank, which he said was unkept. Stagnant water and rubbish strewn around made him to order for immediate clean-up of the premises. But, he left without imposing a fine. 

Rotary district 3231organised a car rally (involving 250 cars) to create awareness about polio and dengue in Vellore on Tuesday. Themed ‘A dengue and polio free world’, the rally which started at Tiruvanamalai, reached Vellore on Tuesday morning. It was again flagged off by collector SA Raman. The vehicles with dengue and polio awareness posters fixed on them headed towards Kancheepuram. 

Sanitary inspector, Mohammed Iqbal, has been placed under suspension for being in effective in curbing spread of dengue in Erode district. He was also charged of long absenteeism.