Hyderabad, Oct 18: With more than 23,500 confirmed cases of Mosquitoe-borne diseases in Andhra Pradesh, Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy today launched 'Operation Dengue' to eradicate mosquitoes and provide effective treatment to the affected people.

Addressing a press conference here after reviewing the health situation with senior officials including district collectors, Chief Minister said the new project would be implemented during the next ten weeks and every possible effort would be taken to maintain health, hygiene and sanitation in the city.

He said an additional amount of Rs 20 lakh would be given to each district for stepping up 'anti-larval' operations on every fridays, to constitute District Epidemic Cell and gear up all Medical College and district hospitals for treating the patients in special wards.

''There is no dearth of funds'', he said adding that the new allocation was in addition to Rs 12.5 crore released by the Centre as regular budgetary allocation.

Ruling out the option of providing compensation to those afflicted by Chikungunya as in Kerala, Dr Reddy said ''Chikungunya is not a fatal disease''.

Voluntary organizations, private institutions, NCC cadets and NSS volunteers would be involved in the new project, he added.



UNI