The Shimla Municipal Corporation has suspended distribution of water from Ashwani Khad (a drinking water source) which is found to be contaminated. Parts of the hill town have been facing the outbreak of jaundice from past few weeks.
Shimla Mayor Sanjay Chauhan on Wednesday said the Corporation would continue with its alternative supply from Gumma and Giri rivulets in the affected suburbs of the town. “We are waiting for the final test reports of the contaminated water from the NIB laboratory Pune”, he said.
The mayoral office has maintained that despite its recurrence the State government and the IPH department have never taken the jaundice outbreak in Shimla seriously. It is the contamination of leakage from the Sewage Treatment Plant at nearby Malyana in the drinking water of Ashwani Khad that has resulted in the outbreak of jaundice in the suburbs close at hand. The Municipal Corporation team had forced the government to intervene and its Deputy Mayor Tikender Panwar had even lodged an FIR against the contractor of the plant.
The recent epidemic has spread into four MC wards and the volunteers are doing door to door surveys and awareness campaigns. The establishments with sewage leakage have been issued notices and their water connections have been cut. :We are giving free drinking water to people in affected areas from our water ATMs,” said Mayor Sanjay Chauhan.
The State CPI (M) and Shimla Nagrik Sabha have demanded the immediate arrest of the contractor of the plant who is still at large.
The fresh jaundice outbreak has affected thousands of people in the town and the State government has suspended and shifted some officials manning the water source.
