The Hindu : Front Page : Cholera alert sounded in Hyderabad

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Sunday, May 10, 2009
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Cholera alert sounded in Hyderabad

Special Correspondent

Two high ranking water board officials suspended

HYDERABAD: The State government cracked the whip on Saturday suspending two high ranking officials of the water board and transferring the Chief General Manager even as it sounded an alert over the outbreak of cholera in the State capital asking the health machinery to initiate precautionary steps to contain the spread of disease.

An alarmed district machinery swung into action and rushed several teams to Bholakpur, the epicentre of the cholera outbreak, to raid eateries and the bone factories in the locality and sealed them on charges of being run in totally unhygienic conditions.

Meanwhile, the inflow of patients into hospitals ebbed with Gandhi Hospital admitting 20 patients and the Fever Hospital seven patients only. Some of those already admitted were discharged as their condition improved. No deaths were reported on Saturday.

Health Secretary L.V. Subramaniam who rushed to Fever Hospital and Gandhi Hospital sought to assure that the situation was well under control.

Meanwhile, Ms. Neetu Prasad, Additional Commissioner of GHMC, who inquired into the Bholakpur water contamination episode, submitted her report to the government, based on which water board General Manager Praveen Kumar and Deputy General Manager Rajasekhara Reddy were suspended. The board’s CGM P. Manohar Babu was transferred.

Ms. Prasad squarely blamed the water board officials for their ‘negligence and indifference’ and observed that there was no sincere effort to find a solution to the choking of drains and contaminated water being supplied despite several complaints lodged by residents of Bholakpur.

Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy who is away in Kadapa reviewed the situation and ordered the suspensions based on the GHMC official’s report.

Finance Minister K. Rosaiah told reporters that12 samples out of 40 collected at Fever Hospital tested positive for cholera.

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