Rashtrapati Bhavan feels the ‘bite’

For dengue-causing Aedes mosquitoes, the Rashtrapati Bhavan complex in the national capital is a safe haven.

According to a report, the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) has issued 52 notices to complexes and residential quarters in the Presidential Estate, because of “mosquitogenic conditions”. This is in keeping with the trend, as even last year, the civic body had issued over 125 notices to the Rashtrapati Bhavan after finding “heavy” breeding of mosquitoes. The NDMC has formed a special team to find ways to curb mosquito breeding in the premises of the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

This season, at least 171 cases of dengue have been reported in Delhi, with 52 of them being recorded in the first week of August. Dengue has claimed two lives in the capital so far. Besides Rashtrapati Bhavan, other high-profile places like All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS), Safdarjung Hospital, Lady Hardinge Medical College and Hospital, Delhi Golf Club, Shivaji Stadium and Akashwani Bhavan, have been challaned by NDMC.

If this is the state of disease-bearing mosquito breeding in high-profile locations in the capital, one can only imagine the condition in non-VIP places in and around Delhi.