The national Capital recorded 510 cases of dengue in just 7 days, taking the total tally to 1429 this year. According to a statement issued by the MCD, the civic body has conducted 2.5 crore times house visits to check mosquito breeding and issued 91462 legal notices and 33226 challans/prosecutions for mosquito breeding besides imposing administrative charges of Rs 30 lakh 68 thousand on 12659 building owners. The city has also reported 42 fresh cases of malaria in a week.

The municipal Corporation's apathy in fogging, conducting anti-larva activities and spraying insecticides has turned the situation more badly. “We have never seen anyone from municipal corporations doing fogging and spraying insecticides since after Covid 19 pandemic broke out,” said Pradeep Bansal, a resident of Timarpur in North Delhi.

Many of the residents termed the inability of authorities that failed to synchronize efforts to bring desired results. The problem of water-logging is persistent every year and despite claims by the authorities such as to clear silt from various canals, small and big drainage.

The drainage in the city is maintained by three agencies such as Flood and Irrigation Department, Public Works Department and Municipal Corporation. What is interesting that all these agencies have claimed to achieve 100 per cent desilting although the situation on the ground is very different from that of what they claim?

Interestingly, Municipal Corporation of Delhi in a statement had claimed that it completed 101 percent work of desilting few months back. A senior official said that about 35044.63 metric tonnes of silt has been extracted from 275 drains from the south area of Delhi months back.

“Apart from this, 9920.29 metric tonnes of silt has been extracted from 195 drains in the north area. At the same time, about 46415.33 metric tonnes of silt has been removed from 218 drains from the east area,” he said.

However, the ground situation is displaying a different picture. Talking about the issue of desilting at Indra Vihar, Vijay Ahuja, a resident of the area said that the drainage was not even cleaned this year because it is full of hyacinth and prevents water from passing through. “It further has complicated the situation as this is an ideal atmosphere for culex mosquitoes to breed. The authorities should act now to help us to get rid of the menace as we do not have more strength to deal with any such diseases especially after Covid 19 pandemic,” he said.