GULBARGA: Paucity of funds and snags in fogging machines are posing problems for the Health Department officials in controlling the spread of chikungunya in the district.

At the quarterly review meeting of the Karnataka Development Programme in the district here on Wednesday, Health Department officials said that fogging was taken up in affected areas in the district. But it suffered a setback as 22 fogging machines developed snags in Gulbarga division. A few more fogging machines went out of order in Yadgir division.

The Health Department officials also said that paucity of funds had hampered their efforts to bring the disease under control. As against the demand for release of Rs. 50 lakh for tackling the disease, the Government released only Rs. 25 lakh so far and this was utilised for the purchase of new fogging machines and other expenditure. The Government had released another Rs. 5 lakh now.

Chief Executive Officer Pankajkumar Pandey told the meeting that the district purchased 30 new fogging machines and it was added to the 20 fogging machines already available in the district. The fogging machines developed snags and there was also shortage of disposable gas cylinders on which these machines worked.

The disease was under control in Yadgir division where new cases had come down to 40 a day with most of them being cases of relapse. But in Gulbarga division, even now more than 400 new cases were reported every day. Health Department officials said that the total number of cases reported in Gulbarga division was 50,386 in 874 villages, which were declared affected villages.

However, there was a slight fall in the report of the new cases and in April new cases reported were 1,000 every day, and it has come down to 400 during May.

Agriculture Marketing Minister Sharanabasappa Darshanapur, also the District in-charge Minister, who presided over the meeting directed the Health Department officials to take measures to distribute 8,000 special mosquito nets supplied by the Union Government. He said the Health Department should not delay distribution of medicines to taluk hospitals, Primary Health Centres and Community Health Centres.

On complaints by Sedam MLA Sharanaprakash Patil about shortage of specialists and medical officers, Mr. Darshanapur said that the Cabinet had cleared recruitment of 500 doctors.

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