Staff Reporter:
The government has reconstituted the National Committee on the Prevention of Dengue and Other Mos-quito-Borne Diseases with Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives Minister Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir as its chairman to strengthen nationwide efforts against dengue and other vector-borne illnesses.
The information was disclosed in a notification yesterday.
According to the new structure, the state minister for Local Government, Rural Development and Coop-eratives has been made vice-chairman of the committee.
The committee includes the mayors or administrators of the Dhaka North and Dhaka South City Corpo-rations, along with representatives from the Cabinet Division, the Prime Minister’s Office and various relevant ministries and agencies.
Senior secretaries or secretaries of the ministries of Health, Education, Environment, Housing, Agricul-ture, Fisheries and Livestock, Information and Broadcasting, Cultural Affairs, Defence, Railways and Civil Aviation and Tourism have also been included as members.
Besides, the committee comprises representatives from the Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (WASA), Local Government Engineering Department (LGED), Department of Public Health Engineer-ing (DPHE), Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (RAJUK), NGO Affairs Bureau and chief executive offic-ers of all city corporations across the country.
As expert members, the committee includes the chairman of Dhaka University’s Zoology department, the chairman of the Department of Entomology at Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University and the head of the Department of Entomology at the National Institute of Preventive and Social Medicine (NIP-SOM).
The senior secretary or secretary of the Local Government Division will serve as the member-secretary of the committee.
According to the circular, the committee will provide necessary directives for the prevention of dengue and other mosquito-borne diseases nationwide and review, evaluate, monitor and coordinate the imple-mentation of relevant activities.
The committee will also conduct necessary research and formulate and update national policies and stra-tegic documents on mosquito-borne disease prevention.
