News
Dengue hits MPs’ hostel: Speaker orders immediate cleanup
The fear of dengue spreading through the MPs’ hostel at Madiwela in Kotte prompted public health officials to inspect the premises and fumigate it as several persons including a State Minister and members of the family of an MP were afflicted with the mosquito borne disease.
State Minister for Education and Nuwara Eliya District MP V. Radhakrishnan who resides at the Madiwela quarters while in Colombo has been hospitalised with dengue fever while the wife and son of Ratnapura District UPFA MP Ranjith de Soyza are among at least 10 persons who have contracted the disease in the past few days, officials said.
At least six members of the Civil Defence Force (CDF) and a Woman Police Constable (WPC) resident at the complex also have been afflicted by dengue, the Sunday Times learns. A senior parliament official said that while all the 120 houses at Madiwela had been allocated to MPs, many remain unoccupied or have been sublet by the parliamentarians to relatives or other acquaintances and were badly neglected.
Speaker Karu Jayasuirya visited the Madiwela hostel on Friday to inspect the premises. PHIs found dengue mosquito larvae within the premises of some of the houses. Some mosquito larvae were in the cisterns of the toilets in the houses, officials said. There were also old tires in which water had collected and mosquitos were breeding.
“The public areas within the hostel are maintained by a common maintenance staff but the housing units have to be maintained by the MPs. However many remain closed while others have been sublet to others and hence maintenance is poor,” the official said.
Parliamentarian de Soyza told the Sunday Times he had complained to the Speaker about the poor maintenance of the MPs’ hostel and asked him to act to remedy the situation. “My wife and son are both down with dengue fever. There are several others too who have fallen ill due to the unclean surroundings,” he said.
The Speaker directed officials to inform the MPs who have kept their quarters closed to clean up their houses. Some cleanup activities began yesterday with health authorities fumigating the premises.