Dengue strikes Mavallipura

BANGALORE: A day after a 15 year old boy died due to dengue in Mavallipura, 20 KM north of Bangalore, the residents blamed it on civic authorities' apathy towards the root cause the nearby landfill.

Akshay Kumar had died on Friday due to dengue. This is the second death in the village within a week.

Leader of Dalit Sangharsh Samithi, V Nagaraj, said seepage from the landfill had contaminated groundwater in the locality. Thus, he said, many in the village were suffering from kidney failure and low immunity.

President of Mavallipura Gram Panchayat, Srinivas, said mosquitoes were such a menace that people had to use mosquito nets even while taking food. He added that the contractor, Ramky Infrastructure Ltd, continued to dump garbage in an unscientific manner. He said because of this, dengue and Chikungunya were spreading fast.

Leo Saldanha of Environment Support Group said the landfill was terribly mismanaged. He said regulatory agencies such as Karnataka Pollution Control Board had done little to contain the damage to human health and environment despite many protests.

Nagaraj said several representations had been made to the BBMP in this regard but in vain. He said not even once did the BBMP undertake fogging or spraying to control proliferation of mosquitoes.

Responding to the allegations, Mayor SK Nataraj said he did not know about the problem as he had assumed office only recently. He said he and the BBMP officials would visit the area on Tuesday to take stock of the situation.