The South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) handed over 200 tablets to dengue breeding checkers (DCBS), who will survey 16 vulnerable wards under them. The computers are preloaded with the corporation's "Vector-Borne Disease Control" application to help them collect data efficiently.
South Delhi Mayor Kamaljeet Sehrawat today launched the tablets with a special mobile application in the presence of several dengue breeding checkers (DBCs) who have been given a special uniform, a cap and a new ID. Municipal Commissioner P K Goel said the model has been adopted from the one used by the Surat Municipal Corporation.
The areas which were vulnerable to breeding where high degree of mosquito-breeding had been reported in the last two-three years were identified and the DBCs in those areas were equipped with these tablets.
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"Keeping records on paper is a tough job and through technology we would also be able to monitor real-time as to where breeding is more, and who are the people not allowing checking of their household premises (checking coolers, etc) for mosquito-breeding, if any, by the DBCs," Sehrawat told reporters.
For households, where breeding is found, the South Delhi Municipal Corporation has also planned to introduce a penal provision against violators.
"The monitoring would allow us to find areas where more violations are happening. As per the norm, we will first issue educational literature about mosquito-breeding control and then notice would be sent and further they would be challaned. But if needed, we would also recover any incurred cost from their house tax," a senior SDMC official said.The GPS-based tablets are loaded with a special mobile application and each DBC has been given a login id and password to use it.
"The app would automatically pick up the location details and after feeding the name of the household owner/tenant, the data would be fed based on various parameters, like breeding of mosquitoes in open water containers, desert coolers, utensils in garden, etc, and if breeding is found, it would be marked on the spot, and the entire data would be be fed to the SDMC main vector-controlling unit," an official of the SDMCs information technology department said.
Calling the role of DBCs in disease control "crucial", mayor Kamaljeet Sehrawat said the new system is expected to ensure proper monitoring, digitalisation, paper-less data collection, real-time monitoring of DBCs and proof collection for legal enforcement. "The DBCs will also be able to upload photos of breeding sites. They have been trained and will be able to operate the tablets easily," she said. The mayor also suggested that DBCs should work on weekends.
(With inputs from PTI)
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