Panchkula: Dengue cases in Panchkula district have surged to 67 as of Oct 6—a sharp rise from 40 recorded two weeks prior on Sept 23—triggering widespread anger among residents over uncollected garbage dumps, lack of house inspections, and ineffective vehicle-based fogging.Official health department data reveals that urban Panchkula is the worst-affected zone with 23 cases, followed by Surajpur with 18 cases, Pinjore with 13, and Kalka with five. The current tally surpasses the 59 cases reported during the corresponding period last year. Meanwhile, malaria cases remain at 10, identical to last year’s figures.Federation of Resident Associations Panchkula president RP Malhotra, a resident of Sector 8, highlighted civic lapses, “Everywhere there are garbage dumps which are not lifted on time. So, it is bound to lead to the breeding of mosquitoes. It causes vector-borne diseases. Also, fogging was done once or twice, and it has no impact. The Panchkula municipal corporation needs to be serious about these two things.”Echoing similar concerns, SK Nayar, president of the Panchkula Citizens Welfare Association and resident of Sector 15, questioned the inspection mechanism, “Three to four months ago, fogging was done. It was also of no use as it was through vehicles and manual fogging is more impactful. Also, no health department teams visited our area to inspect houses for possible larva. Last year they had paid the visit.” Residents in Surajpur, such as Ashok Kumar, also claimed no medical teams or fogging drives reached their area.Thousands of challans issued: MCCountering the allegations, health department officials stated that anti-vector teams are actively conducting door-to-door inspections across households and have issued thousands of notices where mosquito larvae were detected during their ongoing drive.
