IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA CWJC No.17307 of 2009 RAMCHAND YADAV s/o Basudeo Prasad Yadav, r/o Anugrahpuri Colony, P.S. Rampur, District – Gaya … Petitioner Versus 1. THE STATE OF BIHAR through the Principal Secretary, Bihar 2. Principal Secretary, Health Department, Patna 3. State Programme Officer for Vector Borne Disease, Bihar, Patna 4. Superintendent, Anugrah Narayan Medical College, Gaya 5. Secretary, Animal Husbandary Department, State of Bihar, Patna 6. Chief Municipal Officer, Gaya 7. Chief Municipal officer, Aurangabad ……. Respondents ----------- For the petitioner: Ms. Fauzia Shakil, Advocate For the respondents: Mr.S.K. Ghosh, AAG II Mr. Rabindra Kumar Priyadarshi, Advocate 2 10/12/2009 Heard learned counsel for the petitioner, learned counsel for the State and learned counsel appearing for the Gaya Municipal Corporation. The petitioner claims to be a public spirited person and has filed this writ petition in public interest seeking directions from this court to fight menace of encephalitis. Newspaper reports and some other statistics have been annexed to show that starting from 3 deaths in the year 2006 on account of Japanese Encephalitis syndrome in Bihar, the number increased to 164 in the year 2007 but has again come down to 46 2 in the year 2008 and till 26th October, 2009, the reported cases were 105 leading to 30 deaths. The list of persons said to have died of the aforesaid illness includes many people from rural areas of Gaya district. According to learned counsel for the petitioner, lack of clean environment and awareness as well as lack of adequate safety measures like spraying against mosquitoes, has led to so many deaths in the district of Gaya. Public health is always the responsibility of State as well as Municipal authorities specially if illness or disease can be prevented by making people aware of their environment and by taking simple measures so as to avoid the menace of mosquitoes. It is for the State and the Municipal authorities to give due priority to such disease which may cause death of citizens. In view of the aforesaid facts, we dispose of the writ petition with direction to the District Magistrate, Gaya as well as authorities of the Gaya Municipal Corporation to take note of the aforesaid facts and give required priority to the aforesaid disease so that its 3 spread may be prevented by making people aware of value of cleanliness and by providing protection against mosquitoes in the affected areas. Neyaz/ (Shiva Kirti Singh, ACJ.) (S. K. Sharma, J.)