Ganta launches ‘Domalapai Dandayatra’

Visakhapatnam: With the co-operation of general public, Vizag will be made mosquito and epidemic-free district shortly, HRD Minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao has said.The Minister launched ‘Domalapai Dandayatra’ programme on the R K Beach road on Saturday.

He participated in a cycle rally to bring awareness among public about cleanliness in and around the surroundings. Collector Praveen Kumar, Vuda Vice-Chairman T Baburao Naidu, Civic Chief M Harinarayanan, Joint Collector J Nivas, officials, government employees and students also took part in the rally.

Flagging off the cycle rally, the Minister termed open defecation at some places as very unfortunate in view of Vizag becoming a Smart City. Making Visakhapatnam a mosquito-free and epidemic-free district was not a difficult job, if all 6.07 lakh school children and 38,000 employees in the district would work together in educating the public, he observed.

He said even small countries like Sri Lanka were made as epidemic-free countries. State could also achieve the objective, if the public and government work together. To contain the spread of contagious diseases in the State, the government introduced a threeday special programme of ‘Domalapai Dandayatra’ from Saturday to Monday.

The Minister also felt that the GVMC should start imposing fines on the owners of vacant sites in the city who were found making the sites unhygienic by dumping garbage or debris. He informed that Narsipatnam and Elamanchili towns along with Vizag city would be declared as ‘open defecation-free’ areas by Gandhi Jayanti (October 2).

He appealed to the people not to consider ‘Domalapai Dandayatra as a mere government programme but to involve them in it to make the programme a social movement. Later, he administered an oath to the employees and students that they would work in containing spread of epidemics in the district.

Collector Praveen Kumar said that the district administration had swung into action in containing epidemics in urban, rural and agency areas by taking steps including alerting households not to store water for not more than a day, registration of fevers in all government hospitals, to ensure availability of emergency medicines and to keep paramedical staff ready all times.

He directed the employees to clean their respective departments on every Saturday. DM&HO Dr J Sarojini said that she had issued directions to all hospitals not to declare simply any type of fever as dengue without taking their approval. She said that even the dengue patients too need not worry as it could be treated, she said. Joint Collector-2 D V Reddy and District Revenue Officer Chandrasekhar Reddy and others were also present.