Hyderabad: Within days of film star and Jana Sena party founder Pawan Kalyan raising the issue of the kidney patients of Srikakulam district, the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has announced that the victims of the mysterious disease will be included in the list of physically handicapped and will be given monthly pension.
This was one of the several sops the government has announced after Pawan Kalyan visited the Uddanam area and met the kidney patients setting a deadline of 48 hours for the state government to extend relief to them.
Before starting the tour of Srikakulam district, Naidu had a teleconference with the officials of health and Panchayat Raj departments and directed them to take measures on war footing to solve the issue and find a permanent solution to the problem.
Uddanam area of Srikakulam is in the grip of a mysterious kindney ailment affecting thousands of people with many of them dying or becoming crippled for life. “The government has tried to find out the reason but the authorities are also clueless as to why the kidney ailment is so rampant in this area,” Naidu told a public meeting at Rajam town of the district.
The other sops he announced include supply of mineral water for drinking purpose from January 9 and free bus passes to the people who wish to go to King George Hospital in Visakhapatnam for dialysis. He pointed out that the government had already set up a dialysis centers at Srikakulam, Tekkali and Palakonda and two more centres will be set up at two other places in the districts.
Reacting to the government measures, Pawan Kalyan took to the Twitter today and declared it as the “first victory of Jana Sena”.
Welcoming the “positive response” of N Chandrababu Naidu, Pawan wrote, “relief measures announced by the state government in aid of these victims of destiny is the first positive step in the long journey of #Uddanam Nephropathy eradication”.
“It is the social responsibility of all the political parties of Andhra Pradesh to address the issue of #Uddanam Nephropathy till it is eradicated completely. It should feature in every party’s manifesto in future,” he tweeted. Thanking the media for its support to the Uddanam cause, he tweeted that the people of the area would be grateful to them for standing by them.
