Section 159A in The Howrah Municipal Corporation Act, 1980
159A. [ Prevention of mosquito breeding. [Section 159A inserted by W.B. Act 6 of 2001.]
(1)If, in the opinion of the [the Commissioner or any other officer duly authorised by the Commissioner], any pool, ditch, tank, well, pond, swamp, quarry, hole, drain, cesspool, watercourse, pit, cistern, desert or air-cooler, ground, or underground or overhead tank or any collection of water, or any land on which water may, at any time, accumulate, is or likely to become a breeding place of mosquitoes or, in any other respect, becomes a nuisance, the [the Commissioner or any other officer duly authorised by the Commissioner] [Substituted 'Mayor-in-Council' by West Bengal Act No. 7 of 2018, dated 5.4.2018.] may by notice require the owner or the person having control thereof to take all or any of the following actions :-(a)to clean, or drain-off or remove water therefrom, or to provide cover thereto; or(b)[ to treat the same in such physical, chemical or biological method as may consider suitable in the circumstances, or;] [Substituted by West Bengal Act No. 7 of 2018, dated 5.4.2018.](c)to fill up such unwholesome waterbody:Provided that any wholesome waterbody can be filled up only after compliance of the provisions of section 4C of the West Bengal Land Reforms Act 1955 by the owner or the person having control thereof.(2)No person shall keep or permitted to be kept or maintained, within any premises or land any collection of stagnant or flowing water which in the opinion of the [the Commissioner or any other officer duly authorised by the Commissioner] [Substituted 'Mayor-in-Council' by West Bengal Act No. 7 of 2018, dated 5.4.2018.], is or is likely to be breeding place for mosquitoes unless such collection of water is treated in such manner as may effectively prevent the breeding of mosquitoes.(3)All borrow pits dug in the course of construction and repairs of buildings, roads, or embankments, shall be deep and connected with each other in the formation of a drain directed towards the lowest level and properly sloped for discharge into a river, stream, channel, or drain, and no person shall create any isolated borrow pit which is likely to cause accumulation of water which may again in turn, may breed mosquito.(4)The owner or occupier of any premises shall not keep therein any bottle, tyre (old or new) vessel, can, container or receptacle in such manner as may allow it to collect, and/or to retain, water which may breed mosquito, and shall clean and dry such bottle, tyre (old or new), vessel, can, container or receptacle at the interval of seven days.(5)The owner or occupier of any premises shall wrap the openings of the vent-pipes and the outlets of septic tanks with proper mosquito-proof nets and shall maintain covering slabs of septic tanks to prevent entry and exit of mosquitoes.(6)The owner or occupier of any premises shall seal the overhead tanks, cisterns or water receptacles to prevent mosquito breeding and shall provide safe ladder for making the overhead tanks or cisterns or water receptacles approachable in order to facilitate inspection of the water in the container by the authorities of the Corporation.(7)For construction 6f permanent water collections such as swimming pools, artificial fountains, or water reservoirs, constructed for beautification, -(a)an application shall be submitted to the Corporation, stating therein the anti-larval measures, which shall be taken by the applicant to keep the water free of mosquito larvae:(b)the Corporation after considering the application, shall issue a license to the applicant;(c)the applicant shall receive the said license on payment of such fee as may be determined by the Corporation, and the license shall be renewed annually.(8)The owner or occupier of any private pond or water reservoir shall keep such pond or water reservoir free from water hyacinth or allied weeds to prevent mosquito breeding.(9)[ If any person on whom the notice under sub-section (1) is served on fails or refuses to take the measures, or adopt the method of treatment, specified in such notice within the time specified therein or contravenes the foregoing provisions under this section, the Municipal Commissioner himself or any officer duly authorised by him may take such measures or adopt such treatment, specified in such notice within the time specified therein, and recover the cost of doing so from the owner or the occupier of the premises, as the cases may be, by way of levying special conservancy charges, at such rate as may be determined by the Mayor-in-Council, and shall also be liable to a penalty which shall not be less than rupees one thousand but which may extend to rupees on lakh only.] [Substituted by West Bengal Act No. 7 of 2018, dated 5.4.2018.]]
