While dengue is threatening to take epidemic proportions in Dehradun, the Health Department officials engaged in much-hyped anti-dengue drive took a cool off from their duty on Wednesday on account of Vishwakarma Jayanti. Top officials of department, however, maintained that the drive against dengue is continuing in the worst affected areas of the city. In the wake of dengue, the Health Department has constituted many teams which are deployed in the area but on Wednesday, these teams were conspicuous by their absence. When contacted over phone, a Senior Health Department official said that he is with his team in a particular locality, but when he was told that The Pioneer team is also in the same locality, he quickly changed the area of his presence. The number of dengue affected patients took a steep jump on Tuesday when 11 more patients were diagnosed with the disease taking the total tally of this season to 52. Bhagat Singh Colony, Ambedkar Nagar, Sanjay colony and Puran Basti are the areas from where maximum number dengue cases are reported. This correspondent spent a considerable time in the worst affected Bhagat Singh colony, Puran Basti and Sanjay colony areas of the city on Wednesday and did not notice any trace of anti-dengue drive. Senior Health Department officials are claiming that many teams are extensively covering these areas and are visiting every household. These officials also claimed that after the dengue alert, an extensive awareness campaign about the disease is being undertaken in these areas. The counsillor of Bhagat Singh colony Kamli Bhat said that the Health Department did organise two camps in the area but the said claim of door-to-door campaign in the area is not true.Suresh Kumar a shopkeeper in Bhagat Singh colony claimed that he has not seen any Health Department team in the last few days. Manoj Kumar of the same locality said that fogging was done once in the area but he too did not encounter any Health Department team engaging in door-to-door survey. Naeem Ahmed of Lane no 14 of Bhagat Singh colony said that his wife and son are suffering from fever and he took them in the camp of Health Department on Friday where blood samples of both of them were taken but he said that he is yet to get the report of the tests. The Pioneer also found that a large number of people are suffering from high fever and the Health Department is yet to take their blood samples for the confirmatory ELISA test. When contacted the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of Dehradun Dr SP Agarwal claimed that the Department teams covered Bhagat Singh colony, Sanjay colony and Ambedkar Nagar localities on Wednesday when he was told that the team of The Pioneer did not notice any activity he insisted that the teams were in the field. Talking to The Pioneer, Rajpur road MLA Rajkumar who lives in worst affected Sanjay colony accepted that anti-dengue drive is not as effective as it should be in view of the gravity of the situation.