Kochi residents, who deal with the ever-present mosquito menace in the city, might finally get some reprieve. The Kochi Corporation has formed a squad of over 200 members exclusively to engage in activities to eliminate the mosquito menace in the city. The squad was instituted on Tuesday, under the recently formed HEAL (Health, Environment, Agriculture and Livelihood) project of the local body.
As part of the project, 222 workers reportedly employed on a contract basis will engage in activities related to reducing the number of mosquitoes in all 74 divisions of the Kochi Corporation. In the first phase, nets which will be used to cover the vent pipes of toilets in the corporation limits, along with 250 hand sprayers used to spray insecticides to terminate mosquitoes breeding in drains, have been distributed to the workers, officials said.
“The dream of a Kochi without mosquitoes, will become a reality through this,” Kochi Mayor Advocate M Anil Kumar said about the project. The workers have also been issued uniforms and special face masks.
As part of the project, the local body states that it has also distributed pamphlets to houses on awareness about mosquito eradication. The body will also sanction Rs 1 lakh for each ward in the Corporation. Rs 25,000 has reportedly already been allotted to each ward.
Announcing the project on Facebook, the Kochi Mayor said this is the first time that such a project has been implemented in the city. The Kochi Mayor, in his Facebook post added that it was the first time that such a project has been implemented in Kochi. Citizens will also be included in the venture, he added.
The implementation of a project to eradicate mosquito menace in Kochi was one of the promises of the Left Democratic Front (LDF)-led council of Kochi Corporation, after it came into power in January. During the first council meeting, the Mayor had asked the councillors to convene a ward-level meeting to form a task-force engaged in curbing the mosquito menace.
The CPI(M)-led LDF formed the Kochi Corporation in January 2020 following the local body polls held in November last year. The Congress-led UDF constituted the local body for 10 years before that.