Title - Western Railways pulled up by civic body for not following anti-malaria guidelines

Western Railways (WR) is under the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) scanner for not implementing malaria-prevention measures at their workshops.

Three days ago, the BMC’s insecticide department sent a notice to the divisional railway manager for not carrying out preventive steps to curb the breeding of mosquitoes, which spread diseases such as dengue and malaria.

On June 12, the BMC’s insecticide department sent notices to various land-owning authorities in Mumbai including Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA), the army, navy and Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (Mhada), Mumbai Port Trust, the National Textile Corporation, Western and Central Railways, telling them to make their premises free of mosquito-breeding sites by clearing scrap that can hold water and become a breeding ground for mosquitoes, and plugging leaks in buildings and water tanks to avoid water accumulation.

Following the notices, the civic body’s insecticide officers inspected the sites.

“Most of the agencies have taken preventive steps to avoid breeding grounds. We found that WR’s workshop has train wheels stacked in a horizontal position which may lead to accumulation of water in the wheels.

Also, they are yet to clear scrap materials lying in their premises,” said R Naringrekar, chief insecticide officer, BMC.

He added that the civic body has given them a notice to complete work by June 27.

Sharat Chandrayan, chief PRO, WR, said, “We have our own system in place and we regularly conduct fogging.

In case we need assistance, we contact the BMC.”

Until June 21, the city had reported 532 malaria and 17 dengue cases. Doctors said that with intermittent rainfall, the risk of breeding sites developing is even higher.