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To Counter Dengue, Maharashtra Govt. Asks Students To Find Mosquito-Breeding Sites

Ridiculous.
Alvin Baez / Reuters

The Maharashtra government's desire to think out-of-the box in order to counter the menace of Dengue makes a whole lot of sense, but its call for students to go around combing their neighborhoods for mosquito-breeding sites is nothing short of ridiculous.

The Hindustan Times reported today that the Maharashtra government has launched a campaign to get teachers and students involved in combating the spread of Dengue, and to this end, the Maharashtra Education Department has asked students to search their neighborhoods for mosquito-breeding sites.

This absurd call on students of Classes 5 to 12 finds mention in a circular issued on July 28, the newspaper reported.

"Students have been asked to find places where mosquitoes have laid their eggs and larvae are hatched. This is dangerous as students run the risk of getting bitten themselves," Father Francis Swamy, principal, St Mary's School, Mazgaon told HT.

Almost one lakh cases of Dengue were reported from all over the country in 2015, and 220 people died from the mosquito-borne disease, the highest death toll since 2012 and the second highest since 2010. More than 8,000 cases of Dengue have been reported in 2016, and the death toll has reached 10.

Delhi, West Bengal, Orissa, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Karnataka were among the worst-hit states from Dengue, last year.

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.