It is govt’s duty to ensure mosquitoes do not bite people

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina cannot be justified when she said that the government would not be able to clean everyone’s household while talking about the other day the dangerous turn dengue has taken in recent days.

A few questions remain to be answered. Is the dengue situation getting worse day by day because of only household mosquitoes? Have the authorities at the two city corporations done enough to kill the mosquitoes of the city that are being bred outside the households? Still, are all the residents of the capital callous that they do not take any measures to eliminate places where Aedes mosquitoes breed?
The answers would be a resounding ‘no’ to all these questions. There is a marked lack of awareness among the people about the viral disease of this there is no doubt. But it is also true that there is a section of the population who is truly educated about how to maintain a healthy condition within their households but they are becoming victims of diseases including dengue because of state failure to keep the surrounding environment safe for healthy living.

The authorities at the two city corporations, as inactive as they are, hardly employ their troops to kill mosquitoes with fogger machines, even in this peak time of dengue spread. Even if we take it for granted that city dwellers have a responsibility to remain aware of dengue facts themselves, can the government deny that it has a bounden responsibility to take adequate steps to make them aware of the disease. Since the deaths from dengue and cases of hospitalisation of dengue patients are increasing, the authorities are now trying not to admit that they have not done enough to contain the viral disease that is raging in Bangladesh in recent years, though the disease was first detected in the country in the early nineties.

Therefore, what the prime minister said the government cannot kill the mosquitoes inside houses is just a cover to her government’s failure to stop the spread of dengue. Yes, even if mosquitoes bite, the government will have to take the blame since the government’s various authorities are given funds to kill mosquitoes and keep our environment clean.