Chennai, Jul 14 (IANS): The Greater Chennai Corporation will fine apartment owners and residential sites, small shops and establishments, malls and other buildings found with stagnant water in their premises that breeds mosquito larvae.

With intermittent rain on a daily or alternate basis, the puddles of water are turning into breeding grounds of mosquitoes. This is why the corporation has issued warnings to nearly all residential complexes, individual homes as well as malls, shops and premises.

The Chennai civic body officials said they are taking steps to prevent the spread of dengue and will penalize residents and establishments if mosquitoes are found breeding in their premises.

According to health officials, the city has reported nine dengue cases in July this year till Tuesday while in June there were only three cases of dengue.

According to officials, during the north-east monsoon which brings heavy rain, the mosquito eggs are washed away but during the present south-west monsoon, the intermittent rain leaves puddles of water leading to breeding of mosquitoes.

The health department of the Greater Chennai Corporation has already deployed several squads across the corporation limits. This has been done to locate stagnant water bodies and spray insecticides to destroy the mosquito larvae.

The civic body has chalked out a plan and would conduct inspections near the residences of patients suffering from dengue. The house owners will be served a notice for the first violation and for the second time will be fined Rs 100 and Rs 200 for the third violation.

A fine of Rs 500 will be levied on apartment complexes for the first violation, Rs 5000 for the second time and Rs 15,000 for the third violation. Small shops would be fined Rs 500, Rs 2000 and Rs 5000 for the first, second, and third violations respectively.

Government buildings, commercial establishments and industries will have to pay Rs 10,000 for the first violation, Rs 25,000 for the second and Rs 1,00,000 for the third violation.

A Corporation official told IANS, "The corporation will conduct surprise inspections at residential complexes, shops and commercial buildings as well as individual homes and flats to find whether there is stagnant water in their premises. Except for individual homes where we will serve a notice, in all other places we will levy a fine from the first violation itself. People have to be more responsible to contain diseases spread by mosquitoes and if no action is taken, there will not be any positive results."