Four Gulshan buildings fined Tk three lakh

With the official launching of “combing operation” yesterday, Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) imposed fine of Tk three lakh on the owners of four buildings for finding Aedes mosquito larvae on the sites.

At around 10am, DNCC Mayor Atiqul Islam officially launched the combing operation, aiming to destroy the Aedes mosquito breeding grounds in all 36 wards. The operation will begin in the newly added 18 wards later.

The drive began at ward-19 in Gulshan-1 area after the programme. The mayor along with the programme’s chief guest Prof Abdullah Abu Sayeed visited a building at road-1 in Gulshan-1.

Aedes mosquito larvae were found on the rooftop of the building, and the owner was fined Tk one lakh on the spot.

Later, a mobile court led by DNCC Magistrate Sajid Anowar fined one building Tk one lakh and another Tk 50,000 in Gulshan-1, while it fined a building in Gulshan-2 Tk 50,000.

The magistrate said that the money collected from the drive is going to the “miscellaneous fund” of the government, and therefore city corporations cannot use the money directly.

During the drive, DNCC officials posted stickers in residential areas where they found mosquito larvae.

DNCC mayor said their inspection teams will visit houses in each area during the combing operation and if they find Aedes larvae, they will post stickers which read, “Aedes larvae were found here”.

Describing this as the initial warning, he said they will warn the house owners again if larvae are found there after ten days.

“And finally, they’ll be fined if the situation is found to be the same during the next visit after another ten days,” he added.

Earlier on Monday, Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) fined owners of nine buildings Tk 2.28 lakh for finding Aedes mosquito larvae.

Meanwhile, yesterday DSCC and City Development Journalist Forum Bangladesh jointly organised a programme to kill Aedes mosquitoes at Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

While speaking at the programme, DSCC Mayor Sayeed Khokon said, “Under the directive of the prime minister, all government organisations are working with full effort to control this outbreak. We hope it will be completely under control by the first week of September.”

The number of dengue infections and Aedes mosquito prevalence have started to decrease as the authorities concerned have given special importance to destroy mosquito breeding grounds, he said.

The mayor added, DSCC has already launched drives at 58,748 houses under the city corporation to destroy Aedes mosquito larvae.

Besides, members of Bangladesh Scouts have carried out inspections in 1,11,000 houses, Khokon said.

Currently, the two city corporations are using insecticides two times a day -- one in the morning to kill the larvae and the other in the evening to kill the adult mosquitoes.

DNCC and DSCC are using newly arrived insecticides Malathion and Deltamethrin respectively.

Besides, awareness campaign is being conducted at schools and residential areas by the city corporations.