New Delhi, Nov 10 (IANS) The Indian capital reported 42 new dengue cases Tuesday, taking the number of patients to 627 on a day when the union health ministry admitted that the problem was “massive”.
The civic authorities here have initiated a crackdown by imposing fines on people for allowing water to stagnate, leading to the breeding of mosquitoes that act as carriers for the disease. Dengue has already claimed two lives in Delhi this year.

“There were 42 fresh cases of dengue confirmed today (Tuesday). This takes the total number of cases to 627,” Debashish Bhattacharya, the state nodal officer for dengue cases, told IANS.

Eleven of the 42 are from outside Delhi, health officials said.

Union Minister of State for Health Dinesh Trivedi Tuesday expressed concern over the spread of dengue in the capital. “The (dengue) problem is massive and I think the Delhi government is making all efforts to stop the spread of the vector-borne disease,” Trivedi told reporters here.

Last week officials supervising the construction of the Commonwealth Games village in east Delhi had been fined for letting water stagnate at a site, making it a breeding ground for mosquitoes, Delhi Mayor Kanwar Sain told IANS.

“We had gone there for an inspection last week and fined the officials for allowing water stagnation,” Sain said.

The Games officials were one of over 200 people fined last week for allowing stagnant water to accumulate in their premises which had tested as breeding area for mosquitoes. The Commonwealth Games will kick off in October next year.

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) is now contemplating imposing fines in places that have “potential for breeding”.

MCD’s chief medical officer N.K. Yadav said he has convened a meeting of 272 health officials charged with tackling the problem.

“Officers have complained that at many places there is accumulated water and can become breeding spots. So far we have imposed challans (fines) only at places that were confirmed as breeding area, now we are thinking of imposing fines without that level of scrutiny, to check the spread due to breeding,” he said.

Delhi Health Minister Kiran Walia had criticised the MCD for failing to check the rising number of dengue cases in the capital. However the civic agency has reiterated that it is “doing its best to check the spread of the disease”.