NDMC asks embassies to provide access for checking of mosquito breeding

New Delhi: In view of the dengue scare in the National Capital, the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) has approached embassies and foreign missions to provide access to its staff for checking of mosquito breeding on their premises.

The council had also raised the issue with the Health Secretary who wrote to Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar requesting him to issue directions to embassies and foreign missions for the same.

"We had detected heavy mosquito-breeding conditions in five embassies including that of Ghana, Singapore, Malaysia, Ethiopia and the Czech Republic, last month. We suspect that their are similar conditions in other embassies too but at times they do not allow access to our squads," a senior NDMC official said.

"We have been now approached by the embassies of Bhutan and Nepal too to check mosquitogenic conditions in their premises," he added.

The civic body has issued over 3,000 notices including 90 to the sprawling Rashtrapati Bhawan besides hospitals, government offices and schools during this season after dengue mosquitoes were found breeding in their premises.

193 challans have also been issued by it so far with dengue scare in the national capital calling into question the role of civic bodies in containing the deadly disease.

However, NDMC doesn't have the authority to issue any notice or challan to the embassies.

"We do not have the authority to issue any challan or notice to the embassies or foreign missions but once we detect such conditions we send our staff to take all remedial measures there including fumigation and destruction of larvae," the official said.

NDMC areas are home to the high and mighty of the country, including Union Ministers and parliamentarians besides offices of all the ministries, Supreme Court, High Court and residences of Supreme Court judges, senior bureaucrats and senior military officers.

The diplomatic complex in Chanakypuri houses over 60 diplomatic missions, chanceries and ambassador residences.

Meanwhile, the council today issued fresh challans to National Buildings Construction Corporation Ltd, after heavy mosquito breeding was detected at its construction sites in East Kidwai Nagar.

The action comes in wake of the rising number of cases from the vector-borne disease which shot to an alarming 2,000 mark. So far 11 people have died due to the vector borne disease.