Mumbai: Tired of the mosquito menace in Gorai, a villager filed a query under the Right To I n fo r m at i o n (RTI) Act with the local civic office and zeroed in on the culprit.
   Rossi D’Souza, who has been residing in Gorai for a long time, found out that civic officials are supposed to carry out anti-larval treatment in stagnant water bodies in the area, at least once a week. But nothing of the sort has been done in the past few months. 
 

  D’souza’s query revealed that officials are supposed to routinely treat or inspect stagnant water bodies such as surface wells, open storm water drains, septic tanks, water storage tanks and low-lying ditches with water. Stagnant pools dot the marshlands in Gorai. “As the BMC has not been spraying anti-larval oil, the menace has reached alarming proportions. Five persons was down with malaria in my area,’’ said resident Royston Godinho. 
 

  On the basis of BMC’s reply to the RTI query, D’souza has filed a complaint with the corporation’s pest control officer against its failure to carry out the weekly anti-larval treatment. 

   When contacted, A L Wagaralkar, assistant municipal commissioner of the R/Central ward said, “I am busy in a meeting, so call me after sometime’’. The pest control officer was unavailable for comment.

 

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