Dengue: Breeding checks down, spending cut in '21
New Delhi: As dengue cases surge in Delhi, municipal spending on measures to control the spread of vector-borne diseases this year has seen a significant drop with considerably fewer breeding checks being conducted across their jurisdictions, civic bodies' data have revealed.
According to Millennium Post's findings, the South Delhi Municipal Corporation has till the first week of November this year spent Rs 29.4 crore on measures to control vector-borne diseases, compared to Rs 40.25 crore in FY-20-21, Rs 34.8 crore in FY 19-20 and Rs 33.2 crore in FY 18-19 and Rs 33.6 crore in FY 17-18. This includes general spending, salaries of DBCs & CFWs, and capital works.
Similarly, the North MCD had spent over Rs 35 crore in FY 19-20 and Rs 30 crore in FY 20-21 compared to its spending of just Rs 25 crore in this fiscal till now. While officials of the North and South MCD have said that the spending has come down due to the Delhi government allegedly blocking funds, they also said they are arranging for funds from different sources and spending will match previous years by March 2022.
However, in previous years, most of their vector-borne diseases budget is spent before the end of October, by which time cases usually already started declining. This year, the dengue outbreak seems to be peaking in November with cases showing no signs of ebbing.
SDMC Standing Committee Chairman Col BK Oberoi told Millennium Post, "We are currently in the middle of our financial year. By March 2022, we would have spent the same amount of money we do on our anti-vector borne diseases campaign as we do every year. Only Rs 1-2 crore may be off." He went on to say that the Delhi government was "refusing" to pull its weight in spending, adding that workers' salaries had been paid with whatever was received.
And even as several staffers in both the North and South MCDs remain unpaid, including doctors, nurses, teachers, and breeding checkers, data compiled by civic bodies showed that with lesser spending this year, the number of house visits for breeding checks has also dropped significantly.
For instance, in 2018 and 2019, Domestic Breeding Checkers had visited well over 3.1 crore homes till the first week of November and found breeding sites at around 0.7 per cent of the homes. While this year too, the percentage of homes where breeding was found was around 0.7 per cent, the number of house visits had dropped significantly to just 2.44 crore as of November 6. However, home visits are up this year compared to last, when a little over 1,000 cases were reported for the whole year.
In the first week of November this year itself, over 1,100 cases were reported.
Officials in the SDMC's public health department said that this was not due to DBCs being unpaid but attributed this to the pandemic and its after-effects. Col. Oberoi also blamed the fewer checks on the pandemic and a "few other reasons", saying, "Fewer breeding checks may have taken place compared to 2018-19 but we will catch up in the coming days."
He added that the checks started in August like every year and insisted that all measures to control the spread of the disease are being taken appropriately.
Till November 6, Delhi had reported nine dengue deaths and over 2,700 cases, with SDMC leading in cases reported and East MCD reporting the fewest cases. Public health officials in the North MCD said that usually by mid-October, when winter sets in, mosquitoes die out but due to the extended monsoon the cases had surged.
The SDMC has said that it is currently focusing on carrying out checks and preventative actions in 32 hotspots spread across four of its zones.
As far as funding is concerned, the AAP has consistently maintained that required funds have been transferred but alleged corruption in MCDs was the reason spending was decreasing.
