Arvind Kejriwal asks Delhi to declare war on mosquitoes

Arvind Kejriwal

New Delhi: Citing how Delhi came together to implement the odd-even scheme, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday asked people in the capital to jointly declare a war on mosquitoes.

Looking fatigued and speaking with visible pain, Kejriwal said in a video message that he told Health Minister Satyendar Jain to buy as many fogging machines as were needed in the next two or three days. He said it was time for the Delhi government, the central government and the BJP-controlled municipal corporations to join hands to take on the mosquitoes to check the spread of chikungunya and dengue.

Kejriwal, discharged earlier on Sunday after a throat surgery in Bengaluru, said almost every family in Delhi had been hit by chikungunya. Decrying the "politics" over who was responsible for the mosquito menace, he said he had told Jain to "start a war-like campaign against mosquitoes for one-and-a-half months".

He said every second day there should be fogging in every street and every locality in the capital to get rid of the mosquitoes. Mosquitoes, he underlined, "do not differentiate between the Congress and BJP people". The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader said everyone should join the campaign against mosquitoes like during "the India-Pakistan cricket match when all Indians unite".

He said there was enough facility in the Delhi government hospitals to tackle dengue and chikungunya but the problem of mosquitoes remained. "It will not be good if we continue to blame civic bodies which did not do their duty... Now every Delhiite should do it. Civic bodies, the Delhi government and the central government, all should do it jointly," Kejriwal said. Delhi has so far witnessed 32 deaths due to vector-borne diseases.