New Delhi: Municipal Corporation of Delhi’s (MCD) public health department claims to have intensified its drive to check mosquito breeding during the monsoon. However, the department is facing challenges on the ground for the lack of supervisory staff.According to information furnished by the department in the standing committee, there are at least 50% vacancies in the posts of malaria inspectors and assistant malaria inspectors, with several positionew bylinens lying vacant for field workers and multi-task workers.Based on the data submitted to the committee, there are 12 sanctioned posts for entomologists, of which five are occupied, including two by contractual staff. Further, out of 150 sanctioned posts for malaria inspectors, only 58 are occupied, 92 are vacant.Against 600 posts for anti-malaria inspectors, 391 are vacant. The occupied posts include 55 permanent and 154 contractual staff. In the case of multi-tasking staff, of the 5,176 sanctioned posts, 279 are vacant. Of the filled positions, 4,486 are contractual staff, including domestic breeding checkers, and only 411 are regular staff.Permanent posts are filled in senior positions such as municipal health officer (1) additional municipal health officers (3) and deputy health officers (16).Raising concerns, Rafia Mahir, AAP councillor from Bazar Sita Ram, questioned reasons for shortage of staff in the public health department during the June 27 meeting, including major vacancies of anti-malaria officers in 12 zones. “There are anti-malaria staff who are handling double charge because no effort is being made to fill vacant seats. They don’t get the time to visit the assigned areas even if we ask them to take necessary steps,” she said.Prior to this, Yogesh Verma, BJP councillor and chairman of Keshavpuram zone, also raised concerns during the house meeting in May. “Checking mosquito breeding for ten weeks, for 10 minutes, will not resolve the problem. We need supervisory staff and genuine arrangements,” he said.Verma added that a petition has been sent to commissioner to take steps to promote experienced DBC workers or field workers as supervisors. A proposal has also been submitted plan to Delhi govt for sanctioning of posts.Officials also accepted that insufficient supervisory staff makes it difficult for the department to monitor the functioning of multi-tasking staff on the field.Last week, the MCD’s public health department carried out a drive to prevent mosquito breeding. Besides the usual sites, they also checked the vertical gardens this time and found breeding at some places. Indraprastha Vikas Party (IVP) leader and senior councillor Mukesh Goyal, however, questioned the effectiveness of the drives. “A total of 101 cases of malaria, 246 cases of dengue, and 17 cases of chikungunya have been reported so far. Whereas during this period, only 26 cases of malaria were reported in 2023, 21 in 2022, and 13 in 2021,” he said.The teams checked 12,344 premises and found breeding at 1,415 places, which were destroyed on the spot. Besides, anti-larval activities were carried out by the teams. They pasted 3,408 stickers, and 197 polyfoam charts or banners were displayed. Additionally, 939 legal notices and 209 prosecutions were launched, stated the civic body.
