Funds lying unutilised in civic body146;s health department

At a time when city residents are finding it hard to fight vector-borne diseases, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation has failed to utilise the fund allocated as health budget for checking the rise of these diseases.

At a time when city residents are finding it hard to fight vector-borne diseases, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation KMC has failed to utilise the fund allocated as health budget for checking the rise of these diseases.

The KMC records show Rs 72.59 crore had been earmarked as health budget for the current financial year, of which around Rs 10 crore is spent on the salary of the health workers, said a senior civic official. Rest of the amount is allocated for the vector-borne disease control programme and polio, leprosy and tuberculosis eradication programme. The eradication programmes are partly funded by the Centre.

Interestingly, the health budget keeps on increasing every year, but even those services which used to be provided earlier have been curtailed.

Earlier, the KMC used to operate some mobile blood test vans, which moved around the city to examine blood samples if a vector-borne case was suspected.

These vans no longer operate. Moreover, malaria clinics often go without doctors and instead laboratory technicians run the clinics.

8220;At the time of the outbreak, people require at least one clinic that remains open for 24 hours. There was a clinic at the SSKM Hospital that used to operate round-the-clock, but it has been closed down. The option of mobile clinics is also no longer exists. The existing malaria clinics are also not reliable and remain closed most of the time in my ward,8221; said Javed Ahmed Khan, leader of the Opposition.

He added the distribution of medicines in slums is also not satisfactory, as very few people in the Darapara slum area receive medicine, though huge consignment of medicines, worth Rs 60 lakh, have been procured by the civic body for distributing them in slum areas.

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8220;We have not been able to distribute the medicines in all the wards uniformly and could not collect the active data, as we are facing a severe shortage of health workers. Many posts are lying vacant. Moreover, there is no one to supervise the work at the ground level,8221; said a senior health official of the KMC.

The civic body waits for the health department to sanction the required malaria and dengue test kits instead of procuring them by spending a few lakh. 8220;We needed blood-test kits for all the wards under my borough, but we are yet to receive them the kits even after asking for them repeatedly,8221; said Firhad Hakim, chairman, Borough IX.

A senior KMC health official, however, said they do not have the funds to procure blood-test kits. The civic authorities also denied they have enough funds to take all the measures.

Joint Municipal Commissioner Sahidul Islam, on the other hand, said: 8220;We do not have any shortage of funds. We will do everything that is needed to check the outbreak. Whatever has been asked by the health department, we have sanctioned.8221;

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Ratna Sur, chairman of Borough 13, meanwhile, said: 8220;We do not have larvicide 8212; 8216;Pyrithrium8217; 8212; in our stock. The KMC sent bleaching powder for sprinkling. Our health executives, however, said bleaching powder should be sprinkled during an enteric outbreak, it has nothing to do with vectors.8221;

The civic body has even lagged behind in creating awareness against the diseases.

In November, when the outbreak has taken the worst shape, the KMC has allocated Rs 2 lakh for printing leaflets to spread awareness. That too when the diseases may be on their way out with the coming of winters.