Civic staff crunch hits dengue fight

While the national capital is fighting the sudden increase in chikungunya and dengue cases, the three municipal corporations are facing shortage of field staff in the public health department.

Vacancies of field staff vary from one post to 100 per cent in different corporations.

The records of three municipal corporations accessed by this newspaper show that there are vacancies at all positions of field staffs, who are responsible for implementing preventive measures on the ground.

As per the records, out of four sanctioned posts of epidemiologists in South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC), two are vacant. Similarly, in the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC), only one epidemiologist is working against the sanctioned six posts.

In NDMC, all the five sanctioned posts of assistant malaria officer (AMO) are lying vacant. In SDMC, out of four posts of AMO, two are vacant. In the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC), one out of the two sanctioned posts for AMO is lying vacant.

Against the 12 sanctioned posts of senior malaria inspector (SMI) 11 posts in SDMC are vacant. Against 15 sanctioned post for SMI in NDMC, 14 are vacant.

Meanwhile in EDMC, all seven posts for SMI are lying vacant.

Out of the total sanctioned 106 posts of malaria inspector (MI), 62 are lying vacant in SDMC, 46 are vacant in EDMC against sanctioned posts of 65. In NDMC, only 50 posts for MI are filled against 129 sanctioned posts.

A senior civic official said that it was difficult of check mosquito breeding in the absence of the required staff, especially when the city was witnessing a sudden increase in chikungunya cases.

Last week over 400 cases of chikungunya were reported from different parts of the city.