Pune Municipal Corporation: Pune faces health crisis: Only 60 field workers fight vector-borne diseases this monsoon | News from Pune

Pune: The Pune Municipal Corporation he was only 60 field workers to control the city’s mosquito and rodent populations this monsoon season, which saw severe spikes in cases of Zika, chikungunya, dengue, leptospirosis and other vector-borne diseases, staff data revealed.
Of the 330 approved posts for field workers, the civic body had filled only 60. And it is these 60 that the PMC had entrusted for three years before the 2024 outbreak season, when it was short of a whopping 270 key personnel, all of them rat hunters. to fumigators to malaria surveillance workers.
Also, shortly after the first Zika cases began to emerge in June, a tender was put out to hire contract workers for mosquito control. That recruitment process was completed just two days ago, officials said.
PMC’s move to hire contract staff and not trained field workers vector control It was criticized by experts who said the activity should be carried out throughout the year, with regular cleaning, monitoring and disinfection by competent staff and not temporary hire.
Dr Rajesh Dighe, deputy health director, PMC, said, “We had a total of 814 approved posts in our department and out of these, 330 were for field workers. Out of these 330, only 60 were filled, which means that 270 positions were vacant.”
Dighe said field workers play a crucial role in controlling mosquito and rat-borne diseases. “These workers have specific jobs such as fogging, fumigation and spraying. This year, the position of malaria researcher, whose job is to check for specific parasites in human blood samples, also became vacant. We also lacked collectors of ‘insects, which collect live mosquitoes. samples to determine the breeding density and the type of live virus present,’ he said.
On how PMC ended up with more contract workers than competent field staff, Dr Neena Borade, head of public health at PMC, said, “We approved a tender to hire 150 class four employees under contract to serve as field workers. field. There is a state govt. GR which states that class four employees cannot be hired for permanent posts. So even though these posts were approved, we could not fill them.”
Dighe said that for three years, the contract to hire temporary workers was suspended due to litigation filed by various contractors in various courts.
“We had even bought 15 vehicles to facilitate the mobility of these workers, one vehicle for each ward,” he said.
State entomologist Dr Mahendra Jagtap said the civic authorities should have initiated preventive measures much before the monsoon.
“It is ideal to start with steps like awareness programs and destruction of spaces where mosquitoes can breed,” said Dr Jagtap.
He added, “Mosquito breeding is very likely under certain favorable conditions, but due to climate change and drastic changes in monsoon patterns, this breeding is no longer limited to a specific season.”