Munugodu: Fluorosis victims celebrate Diwali, burns effigy of Flurosis rakshasa

Hyderabad: In a rare event in their lives, fluorosis victims in Munugodu celebrated the Diwali festival on Monday. They were all smiles as they burst crackers and burnt the effigy of the Fluorosis 'rakshasi' (monster).

For more than five decades, people of erstwhile Munugodu suffered due to high fluoride content in the groundwater. Many people died and those living had physical deformities leaving them physically challenged and tough to live independently.

However, after the formation of Telangana State, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, who toured the district and saw their sufferings, announced the Mission Bhagiratha programme to provide drinking water to every household and allocated Rs 50,000 crore soon after he took charge as the first Chief Minister of Telangana State.

While several generations suffered due to fluoride, the Union government recently declared that the State had succeeded in putting an end to the fluorosis menace. People born in the erstwhile Munugode over the last four-five years have shown no symptoms of fluorosis problems, indicating the end of the disease in the district.

Marking the occasion, the fluorosis victims came together to burn the effigy of the Fluorosis monster and celebrated Diwali. Fluoride Vikalangula Network leader M Srinivasulu, Fluorosis Vimukti Porata Samithi State convener K Subhash, fluoride victim-turned-activists Amshala Swamy, Thirupathamma and others, participated in the celebrations.

Government Whip Balka Suman, Telangana Differently Abled Welfare Corporation chairman Vasudeva Reddy, TRS leaders Karnati Vidyasagar, Putta Vishnuvardhan Reddy and others also took part in the celebrations.