Chief Minister Harish Rawat today launched a dengue awareness campaign in Dehradun.
Dehradun:
With dengue cases on the rise in Uttarakhand, Chief Minister Harish Rawat today launched an awareness campaign in the city being carried out by the state police as he joined in a clean-up drive clearing choked drains with the help of spades and shovels.
Mr Rawat caught eyeballs as he spent about two hours clearing choked drains at Balmiki Basti and sprinkling them with kerosene.
Terming stagnant water as the breeding ground for mosquitoes, he advised people to keep flushing water containers and tanks close to where they live on a regular basis.
He asked them to ensure that drains around their houses do not get choked with indiscriminate dumping of waste and are sprinkled with kerosene on regular intervals.
Mr Rawat personally visited homes and had a number of open water tanks on the roofs covered.
A number of fogging machines have been pressed into operation in various areas of the city besides increasing the number of beds at the Doon Hospital, he said asking people not to get panicky but maintain cleanliness and hygiene around themselves.
Dengue cases in Uttarakhand have been on the rise with the majority of cases reported from Dehradun.
Out of a total of 756 dengue cases reported so far from different parts of the state, as many as 709 have been reported from the state capital only, according to an official estimate.
The chief minister is himself monitoring the situation by regularly reviewing it in consultation with departments concerned.