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is, or is likely to become, a breeding place of mosquitoes, or in any other respect
a nuisance, the Commissioner may, with the approval of the Standing Com-
mittee, by notice in writing, require the owner thereof to fill up, cover over or
drain off the same with such materials, and in such manner in all respects, as
the Commissioner shall require, or to take such other order with the same for
removing or abating the nuisance, as the Commissioner shall prescribe.
332. This is an improvement on the previous wording of the section, but
it must be pointed out that the amendment on the lines suggested does not meet
the requirements of the case for the following reasons :—
(1) Only potential breeding places already existing can be dealt with.
There is no power given under any section of the Act to prevent the
multiplication of potential bleeding places; and apparently any person can
dig a well, construct a tank or fountain or place any number of tubs or
vessels to contain water on his premises without let or hindrance.
(2) The powers enforced by the existing Act only permit the Munici-
pal Commissioner to take action in regard to section 381 with the sanction
of the Standing Committee, and he cannot delegate his duties under that
section to any municipal officer. Thus the Act as it stands at present doe3
not legally oblige any person to take notice of a requisition under section
381 until he has received an order in writing from the Municipal Com-
missioners and the Commissioner cannot issue such an order until the matter
has been considered by the. Standing Committee,
333. An example may be suggested of what might easily occur under
existing circumstances. Suppose an officer of the Health Department discovers
a large number of mosquito larvae and pupae of a dangerous species, breeding in a
garden tub. He may call the attention of the owner to the fact, but legally
he has no power to take any action, and if the owner objects to do anything
himself and refuses to permit anything to be done, the officer would have to
leave the tub alone; all he could do would be to report matters to the head of
his department. In due course the case would be reported to the Municipal
Commissioner, who in turn would place it before the Standing Committee.
The Standing Committee, after considering the matter, would no doubt sanction
the issuing of an order by the Municipal Commissioner to the owner to abale
the nuisance; and the Commissioner himself might take action if after the expiry
of the notice nothing has been done. But in the ordinary course of things the
owner would be summoned before a Magistrate, and this would create a still
further delay. No doubt the tub of the mosquito larvae would be dealt with in
the end, probably after the expiry of some weeks ; but the same thing might
happen again and again. This of course is an extreme case, but it is typical of
the unwieldy methods that have to be adopted in Bombay under the present
Act, and the proposed amendment of section 381 does not suggest any simplifi-
cation of this cumbersome procedure.
Section 8.
331 THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE ACT IN REGARD 10
MOSQUITO PREVENTION.—The powers given under the various sections
of the Municipal Act quoted above are much too vague to enable the Sanitary
authorities to carry out mosquito prevention work with any assurance of success.
Until the breeding of mosquitoes is declared to be a statutory nuisance and
the Sanitary authorities are given adequate powers for dealing with the danger
in an efficient manner, so that if necessary they can themselves abate the
nuisance after short notice to the responsible party, it is doubtful if the
breeding of the most dangerous species of mosquitoes can be controlled and the
spread of malaria be prevented.
It has happened frequently that when persons are summoned before a
Magistrate under section 381 (as it stands at present) with a view to obtain
the enforcement of an order to abolish or protect a collection of water that is
the breeding place of mosquitoes, the case is dismissed. Quite recently in a
case in which a house-owner had refused to obey an order to fill up a collection
of water in which mosquitoes were breeding on his premises, the Magistrate
dismissed the case, basing his decision on the statement of the defendant that