Saturday, April 17, 2010
Health officials unable to discharge duties efficiently due to lack of vehicles

• Outbreak blamed on stagnant water in an under-construction hostel
• Mescom criticised for unscheduled load-shedding

Mangalore: Forty-six malaria cases have been reported from the campus of the National Institute of Technology-Karnataka (NIT-K), Surathkal, this month, according to Deepak Bolar, Malaria Officer in the Mangalore City Corporation. Stating this at the corporation council meeting here on Friday, he said the affected persons included construction workers and students. Dr. Bolar attributed the spread of malaria there to stagnant water in a hostel building being constructed on the campus. He said health officials had visited the campus and instructed the authorities concerned to ensure that water was not allowed to stagnate in the building. Chairperson of the Standing Committee for Health, Education and Social Justice R. Shantha said that the corporation had withdrawn some vehicles from the health section for other purposes, primarily to collect taxes. As a result, the malaria cell in the corporation could not discharge its duties efficiently. Even now, the cell did not have enough vehicles, she said. Stating that there was no shortage of medicines, Ms. Shantha said, “The town planning officials should not think that their job is over with issuing building licences. They should visit the buildings and ensure that there is no scope for water stagnation.” Many members expressed concern over unscheduled load-shedding. They alleged that Mescom was not sparing water pumping stations from power cut. There was disruption in power supply to the main pumping station at Thumbe, they said. Commissioner of the corporation K.N. Vijayaprakash said that he too had received complaints of frequent power failures from the pumping stations at Thumbe, Panambur and Bendoorwell. Abul Khader, Assistant Executive Engineer, Mangalore Subdivision No. 1, Mescom, said that in the past week, the city had received only 100 MW of power against the 160 MW required. The short supply was due to a technical snag at Raichur Thermal Power Station, he said. The former Mayor M. Shankar Bhat opposed the proposal of the National Highways Authority of India to acquire land for widening the highway between Nanthoor Circle and Talapady to 60 m. He said that the width of the highway should be restricted to 45 m. The city corporation had already acquired some land near Pumpwell for constructing a bus-stand there. It could give away about 1.5 acres of land from that for the highway project, he said. However, the debate on this issue ended abruptly. Mayor Rajani K. Dugganna said that she would pursue with the Government within a fortnight for approving the latest version of master plan for the Mangalore Local Planning Area. “We will go to Bangalore with the district in-charge Minister to ensure its approval,” she said.