MC cries war on rampaging rats

Following a flood of complaints from walled city areas that rats are damaging sewerage lines,causing leakages,blockades and hampering free flow of drainages,the municipal corporation has declared a war against the rodents,setting aside Rs 3 lakh to buy drugs to kill them.

Following a flood of complaints from walled city areas that rats are damaging sewerage lines,causing leakages,blockades and hampering free flow of drainages,the municipal corporation has declared a war against the rodents,setting aside Rs 3 lakh to buy drugs to kill them.

Last week,Municipal Commissioner D P S Kharbanda held a meeting of senior officials and asked the health,sanitation,sewerages and water supply departments to prepare a report and earmarked Rs 3 lakh to buy drugs to kill the rats. The rodents are always a trouble. More funds will be given to kill the rats, said Kharbanda.

He said earlier too,a private firm was hired for killing rats but it was not much of a success. Two years ago,we had planned largescale killing of rats and engaged private firms. But they started siphoning off funds by forging the counts of the dead rats since they were to be paid per killing. Now,we have decided to kill rats on our own. Special teams are being set up and they will be assigned wards.

Kahrbanda said 70 city councillors would supervise the campaign and distribute drugs to the public. Dr Yogesh Kumar from the health and sanitation division of MC said the explosion in the number of rats was alarming since they were also couriers of bacteria that could contaminate food. The walled city has an old sewerage system and rats damage it easily,causing seepage and blockades, said Kharbanda,adding they had no option than to kill the rats. He said cats were helpful but not many people kept them as pets since they were not considered very auspicious.

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