Dy CM Pawan visits diarrhoea-hit Gurla

Vizianagaram: Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan on Monday visited Gurla village where diarrhoea claimed 11 lives in the past one week.

Pawan reached Gurla by road from the Visakhapatnam airport and interacted with the local people to know about the reasons behind the outbreak of diarrhoea.

The locals explained to him lack of pure drinking water and that they were only getting impure and contaminated water through pipelines.

They said that sanitation is very poor and drains in the villages were kept without de-silting for a long time. The drinking water tank is not maintained properly by the staff concerned, they complained.

The Deputy Chief Minister visited the primary health centre and interacted with the diarrhoea patients. He visited the drinking water tank and pipeline system at Champavathi and observed the conditions.

Later, he said that he would personally provide an assistance of Rs one lakh to the kin of each of the deceased.

Later, he held a review meeting with the rural water supply officers and sought the details of the water supply scheme in the area and instructed the staff to rectify the water supply system.

Pawan assured that the government will take measures to supply quality drinking water to the people of the villages and prevent recurrence of such diseases.

... lambasts previous YSRCP govt for ignoring sanitation, drinking water supply in rural areas

Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Panchayat Raj Pawan Kalyan on Monday lambasted the previous YSRCP government for ignoring sanitation and drinking water supply in rural areas.

He flayed the YSRCP government for not releasing a single rupee to the panchayats and destroying the rural infrastructure.

After visiting the diarrhoea-hit Gurla, Pawan held a review meeting with Collector B R Ambedkar and officials of the Rural Water Supply and Medical and Health departments at the Collector’s office here. He pointed out that getting pure drinking water is the primary right of every citizen.

He slammed former Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy for constructing a palace for himself and failing to take up repairs to the water supply system in rural areas.

“We are not escaping from our responsibilities by simply blaming the previous government, ours is a responsible government and we will rectify all the mistakes committed by them,” he said.

The Deputy Chief Minister said the previous government has completely diverted the 15th Finance Commission funds to other schemes and as a result, the water supply and sanitation system in rural areas has collapsed.

After getting complete inquiry report from senior IAS officer Vijayanand, the government will announce compensation to the families of the deceased, Pawan said.

The Deputy Chief Minister assured to improve the drinking water system. “We got Rs 580 crore from the Union government under Jal Jeevan Mission and the funds will be properly utilised and drinking water system will be improved,” he said.

Later he instructed the officials to sensitise the people living near the rivers to avoid open defecation to protect water bodies.

Minister Kondapalli Srinivas, MP K Appalanaidu and other officials were present.

Later, the Deputy Chief Minister has conducted a meeting with MLAs of the district and received grievances from them in connection with the Panchayat Raj department.