As the capital reels under an outbreak of dengue fever, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi said on Tuesday that it was considering a ban on water coolers across the city. These coolers are the major breeding grounds for the disease-carrying aedes mosquito.
The civic body has also decided to cancel leave, including on weekends, of all its health department officials, and was recruiting additional staff for checking domestic breeding of mosquitos.
"We are considering a ban on water coolers across the city as 95 percent of mosquito breeding takes place there," Mayor Farhad Suri told reporters.
However, Suri said the ban under Section 376 of the MCD Act would come into effect only if there was no legal binding.
"I have sought the opinion of the chief legal officer in the matter and would decide on the issue in two to three days," he said.
The mayor said that the civic body was in the process of procuring special medicinal granules called 'temphos', which, when put in stagnant water, checked breeding of mosquito larvae.
"We expect to receive the medicinal granules by the end of this week or early next week," he said.
Besides this, the MCD is trying to procure four to five fire brigade tankers, which would help in better spraying of larvicides due to their long hoses.
The civic body has already issued an advisory asking people not to use water coolers.
Listing the steps to check the spread of the disease taken by the MCD, Leader of the House Jitendra Kochchar said the municipal commissioner has agreed to release funds to check the spread of dengue at the zonal level.
