Lado Sarai Tragedy: Residents and leaders agree on dengue spike, differ on action taken

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Kavita Sejwal, the landlady of the building, said, “There are cases in the whole of Lado Sarai, but in our building, in the last two months, there were four other cases. All the children recovered, only two of them needed hospital admission. But it is a big headache. We use mosquito repellents and clear water, but still there are mosquitoes,”

Sejwal said her 12-year-old niece was diagnosed with dengue last month, but recovered at home. “Her platelets had started dropping, but we gave her lots of fluids, kept getting her blood samples checked and she recovered.”
Sejwal said she and her husband had requested municipal officials for fumigation.

Banalata Moharana, a tenant, said, “When Avinash got dengue, we thought he too would recover like other children.” Moharana’s husband Gyanendra Debasis said, “I had gone to the local municipal office a couple of weeks ago and requested them to conduct fumigation in our area. They did not immediately respond and I requested them again and again, but they did not turn up.”

Lado Sarai municipal councillor Anita said dengue cases were far more than previous years in the whole area.
“I keep getting requests for fumigation and our officials are also doing a lot of work, but it is true cases are very high.

We are doing fumigation, but people do not heed repeated public education messages. There are a lot of money plants in the area, where water stagnates. They keep storing water and such things lead to breeding of mosquitoes no matter how much we fumigate,” she told The Indian Express.

Anita added she was aware about the Avinash’s case, but not sure if the child died of dengue. “I have spoken to our district health officer and he says the child was ill for the last few days. It is a private hospital so the diagnosis has to be verified. It is a very sad case… the death of the parents was preventable.”

Batra Hospital, where Avinash died, told The Indian Express he was critical from dengue. Naresh Yadav, MLA of Mehrauli, under which Lado Sarai falls, said he had not received any “particular complaint” from the area about the lack of anti-mosquito drives.

“I got a complaint from Ber Sarai today, so I alerted the fumigation teams. Whenever I receive a complaint, I follow it up. Now that you have told me, tomorrow I will send a fumigation team to M block.”