Pune: The civic body has started a deep clean drive across the city from Tuesday, with a focus on garbage cleaning and efforts to curb vector-borne ailments on the backdrop of the ongoing monsoon.Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) teams identified about 85 mosquito-breeding spots on the first day and conducted fogging and spraying activities at more than 180 locations.Civic officials said that with the early arrival of the monsoon and continuous spells, the deep clean drive aims to focus on health and hygiene-related aspects, besides other initiatives like the lifting of garbage and debris.The drive will continue for the next three days. The teams will conduct inspections at more locations.The civic body has deployed a team in each of its 14 ward offices, which will visit vulnerable spots of mosquito breeding and water accumulation and issue notices to the owners.“During the visits, our teams saw that people were ignorant towards maintaining cleanliness on their premises. The civic teams have been told to spread awareness among residents to clear stagnated water and stop throwing garbage in the open to reduce instances of decaying waste in rain,” a civic official said.The civic teams are also approaching housing societies to increase inspection drives.The civic body, apart from identifying mosquito-breeding spots, has lifted over 60 tonnes of dry and wet waste from open areas on the first day of the drive. Dangerous trees and branches were cut at more than 180 locations. Cleaning of drainage lines and chambers was conducted at over 200 locations across the city, while potholes were repaired at 15 locations.Citizens Look for Sustained EffortsResidents have said deep cleaning should be part of continuous efforts.“A four-day-long activity of deep cleaning is not enough to maintain cleanliness in the city. Garbage mess is a major challenge, and there are no adequate provisions to hand over dry waste, garden waste and construction waste,” said Akash Modak, a resident of Balewadi. Civic activist Sachin Kotwal said the civic administration was not taking adequate steps to maintainpublic health and hygiene.
