Ward 99 residents cheer as KMC gets busy restoring pond
When a JCB, deployed by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation moved into action to restore a more-than-half-filled pond this morning, it gave the residents of Ward 99 some ray of hope.
The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has arranged for Covid-19 tests for slum dwellers of Hazar Basti in North Kolkata where dwellers of 10 shanties in the slum, are suffering from high fever with a loss of taste and smell for the past few days.
The Statesman had yesterday reported that ‘Hazar Basti’ (thousand slums) in Baghbazar, within ward-07 of KMC, has atleast 130 shanties where dwellers in 10 houses, lay home with high fever for the past four days while residents alleged that no provisions of undergoing Covid-19 tests were being arranged by the KMC.
The affected persons are losing their sense of taste and smell, as testified by a resident of the slum who pointed out that the fever with flu symptoms is spreading quite fast inside the slum and without help from KMC in getting tests done of the sick persons, they will continue to spend sleepless nights.
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The former councillor and now KMC coordinator of the ward, Mr Bapi Ghosh said “We have arranged to get these affected slum dwellers undergo Covid-19 tests. On Friday, the KMC will arrange for the tests at 11.30 am. Most cases of fever happened in one particular lane inside the slum.”
He added, “We have received information that several migrant labourers who couldn’t enter their villages, are now entering the city and seeking shelter with their related ones. The same has happened in Hazar Basti where some migrant labourers have settled after being denied permission to enter their respective villages. We are carrying out sanitisation in the area every day.”
Mr Swapan Samaddar, former MMIC and now KMC board member in charge of slum development, told The Statesman, “The criterion to arrange for Covid tests in a densely populated area is that, if more than five families have been affected with fever, our slum volunteers immediately inform the civic body. We thereafter arrange for medical examiners who diagnose them and if needed, they suggest Covid -19 tests. We have also made provisions for carrying out testing, in the area concerned.”
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