Spurt in dengue cases in Solan indl belt

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan,September 21

With hygiene non-existent in slum clusters in various industrial areas of Solan district, it has become an arduous task for the Health Department to contain the spread of dengue.

The disease count has reached 1,132 in Solan district and a large chunk of these cases are emerging from various slums in Parwanoo, Taksal, Baddi and Nalagarh. As many as 907 cases, including 352 from the neighbouring Haryana, have been detected in Parwanoo alone while 49 and 152 cases have emerged from Nalagarh and Baddi industrial areas, respectively, in the current monsoon, reveal figures available with the Health Department.

With no assured source of safe drinking water, slum dwellers store water under unhygienic conditions in open utensils. This provides a fertile breeding ground for the dengue-causing mosquitoes, revealed Chief Medical Officer, Dr RK Daroch.

The slums also lack proper toilets. Several families are compelled to share temporarily built unhygienic toilets. The local administration has failed to check the spread of these slums which were inhabited by migrants from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, etc.

The Health Department, on its part, has been making regular visits to these slums to create awareness among the residents but in the absence of hygienic living conditions the spread of such disease could not be checked. What is lamentable to note is that the efforts of the district administration to place mobile toilets at Taksal village met with strong opposition from the land owners.

Though efforts had been made by the Baddi Barotiwala Nalagarh Development Authority to rehabilitate the slum dwellers by introducing a low-cost housing scheme it has failed to rid the area of slums. Since a slum dweller has to shell out more for staying in the houses erected under the low-cost housing schemes, they prefer to live in unhygienic shanties.

There are as many as 101 jhuggi clusters in the state’s industrial hub of Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh (BBN) at Baddi, Bhud, Sandholi, Manpura, Beli, Lodhi Majra, Bhatoli Kalan, Barotiwala, Mandhala, Thana and Dhella villages with a population of more than 15,000.

Slums lack toilets

Slums also lack proper toilets. Several families are compelled to share temporarily built unhygienic toilets. The local administration has failed to check the spread of these slums which were inhabited by migrants from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, etc. The Health Department, on its part, has been making regular visits to these slums to    create awareness, but in the absence of hygienic living conditions the spread of such disease could not be checked.

Housing scheme fails to take off

Though efforts had been made by the Baddi Barotiwala Nalagarh Development Authority to rehabilitate the slum dwellers by introducing a low-cost housing scheme it has failed to rid the area of slums. Since a slum dweller has to shell out more for staying in the houses erected under the low-cost housing schemes, they prefer to live in unhygienic shanties. There 101 jhuggi clusters in the state’s industrial hub of Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh.