The Pioneer, Sept 14, 2010
PNS | Bhubaneswar
The health situation in Rayagada, Nuapada, Nabarangpur, Kalahandi and Malkangiri districts on Monday worsened as cholera, diarrhoea and other water-borne diseases took an epidemic form with the alleged death of around 144 tribals due to the diseases. The official toll has been pegged at 39.
The disease spread to 12 more villages on Monday, taking the total number of villages affected in the district to 138. The worst affected Rayagada district is among the most underdeveloped parts of the country and is often in the news for starvation deaths.
People in remote parts of the districts are still taking mango kernels and tamarind seeds as their principal food in absence of an effective delivery system to provide subsidised rations a their doorsteps.
Though the major reason of the spread of the diseases is water contamination, nothing fruitful has so far been done to provide purified water to the people of the affected areas of the districts.
"According to medical reports, many people got affected as they drank contaminated water. The Government has undertaken a massive chlorination drive in all the affected villages. Additional teams of doctors and paramedics have been dispatched to Rayagada and other districts contain the spread of the disease," Health Minister Prasanna Acharya said.
The Minister informed that for institutional treatment of the affected, the Government had increased the incentive for bringing a patient to hospital from `100 to `200.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said Health Minister Acharya and Secretary Anu Garg would visit Rayagada on Tuesday to make an on the spot assessment of the situation.
"The Health Minister and Secretary will visit Rayagada district on Tuesday. The State Government has sent 30 doctors and 40 paramedics to Rayagada to help our doctors teams deployed there," the Chief Minister said.
Meanwhile, refuting allegations that poor people in the KBK region died of gastroenteritis by consuming mango kernel and other 'uneatable' stuff in recent months, the Odisha Government on Monday claimed that `2 a kg rice scheme was doing well in the area.
"Alegations that people are deprived of cheap rice in KBK region is incorrect. The scheme is doing very well across the State," Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik told mediapersons.
Reacting to the opposition Congress allegations on cholera and diarrhoea deaths in the tribal-dominated areas, Patnaik said the State Government had taken adequate steps to contain spread of water-borne diseases in the southern region.
A Congress team led by its working president Lalatandu Bidyadhar Mohapatra, however, claimed that poor people had fallen ill by consuming mango kernel and other uneatable stuff in Kashipur block of Rayagada due to non-availability of cheap rice.
"A large number of people in Kashipur showed us dry mango kernel being consumed by them. In the absence of safe drinking water, people get infection by consuming water from springs and ditches," he alleged.
Claiming that 45 people have succumbed to diarrhoea and cholera in Kashipur alone, Mohapatra said over 100 people had died in Rayagada.
"The situation is totally out of control in Rayagada where people are dying without medicines, water and food since the last three months," he said.
Describing the situation in KBK region as the 'worst', the OPCC working president said while gastroenteritis had taken epidemic form, the State Government was yet to respond to it.
The Congress leader also alleged that the people in Rayagada district were deprived of jobs under NREG.
Panchayati Raj Minister Prafulla Samal, however, claimed that NREG was being properly implemented in the State.
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