Rats win the race against panchayats

KOCHI: The rat fever outbreak that rattled Ernakulam district with hundreds of cases and several deaths has passed by, but the rodent pesticide meant to be distributed to tackle it is yet to reach the beneficiaries.Out of the total 85 panchayats where rat pesticide was to be distributed, the solution reached only four panchayats.The programme was launched in October last year when the rat fever menace was at its peak.As per the programme, a government order was issued by the Collector asking all the 85 panchayats in the district to order rat pesticide from Kerala State Warehousing Corporation.The concerned health workers were then supposed to distribute one packet weighing 50 gm, to every house in the panchayat.However, in spite of the order, only 47 of the total 85 panchayats ordered for the pesticide, of which only four panchayats distributed it further to the households.In fact, pesticide worth about `25 lakh is rotting at the various panchayats in the district.Going by the poor response in ordering and repayment, the Warehousing Corporation has temporarily called off the distribution of the pesticide.“We have been promptly delivering the pesticides wherever possible.We have distributed over three lakh packets to the 47 panchayats.But in the absence of distribution, funds were not released and only four panchayats have been able to pay for the pesticide.It was owing to this that we temporarily stopped distribution,” said P Gopalakrishnan, joint manager, Inspection and Quality Control.Another major cause of concern is that the usage date of the pesticides will get expired after a period of three months.Since the supply began way back in October, a large chuck of unused pesticide would already have gone past the expiry date.The District Panchayat on the other hand has been pushing the concerned panchayats to get the programme through.“We have ordered the concerned panchayats several times to implement the programme.We will be convening a meeting on February 16 to discuss the issue.In fact, if the distribution is not done before March 31, the funds for the project will get lapsed,” said District Panchayat president Eldhose Kunnappallil.The project was to be funded by the Ward Health and Sanitation Committee funds of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) under which every ward in the panchayat would receive an amount of `10,000.Last year, more than 50 per cent of these funds had lapsed owing to incomplete programmes and lack of utilization.