Dengue: Delhi Conducts Trial To Spray Larvicide Using Drones; To Be Used In Inaccessible Areas

New Delhi: Delhi Mayor Shelly Oberoi on Tuesday (August 1), said public health and engineering department of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi has “successfully” conducted a trial to spray larvicide using drones, and this method will now be regularly used in inaccessible areas and for under construction buildings. The move comes amid a rise in dengue cause in the national capital, and an ongoing strike by dengue breeding checking (DBC) workers.

The public health department conducted a trial today for using a drone to spray larvicide, and it was successful. And, tomorrow we are officially launching it. It will be used regularly in different areas, Mayor Oberoi told reporters on Tuesday.

She said 30 litre anti-larval medicine can be carried mid-air by a drone.

Also Read: Delhi Health Minister Directs Hospitals To Formulate Protocol On Dengue Amid Spike In Cases

Asked which all areas will it cover, the mayor said it will be used for spraying larvicide at under-construction buildings and sites which are rather inaccessible to dengue control workers.

Care will be taken to ensure the larvicide does not get sprayed on humans or animals, she added.

The mayor, however, did not elaborate if the drones will be newly procured or used via an agency.

On the ongoing strike by DBC workers under the banner of Anti-Malaria Ekta Karmachari Union, she said, “We are considering their demands. Some sanitation workers have been regularised.

The mayor alleged that the problems being raised by the DBC workers today are long-standing, and a result of “misrule of the BJP” when it was in power in the MCD for the last 15 years.

We have spoken to the DBC workers. But, this is not the time to sit on a dharna, she said, alluding to rising cases of dengue in the city.

Delhi reported 56 fresh dengue cases in the past week, taking the tally to more than 240, according to a municipal corporation report on Monday.

The report said 72 malaria cases were recorded in the January 1-July 28 period.

The number of dengue cases reported in July so far stood at 121, 40 in June and 23 in May.

The mayor has given us an assurance, on our demands. But, we will continue our strike, until we are given something in writing, the Union’s president, Devanand Sharma, said on Tuesday.

Amid a rise in dengue cases in Delhi, scores of city municipal workers, who are at the forefront of the fight against vector-borne diseases, began their indefinite strike on Monday.

Authorities at the Municipal Corporation of Delhi have been appealing to these workers to reconsider their decision in view of the spike in dengue cases in the last few weeks.

Also Read: 187 Dengue Cases Reported In Delhi From Jan 1 To July 22 This Year

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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