VIJAYAWADA: Blaming the inefficiency of the State government for the health emergency in Eluru, Leader of Opposition and TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu demanded an impartial and full-fledged probe into the incident. In a press release, he said the death of one person and hospitalisation of more than 300 people due to ‘mysterious illness’ has left him shocked and anguished. He said it is a failure of the government on the public health front. “Can there be a more unfortunate and bigger failure than this?,” he asked.
The TDP chief said in the last 18 months, water sources were not cleaned and chlorinated at several places, which clearly shows the irresponsibility of the government. “It is even more unfortunate that it has happened in the Health Minister’s constituency. Though the visuals of people suffering has moved people, the response from CM YS Jagan Mohan Reddy was nominal and now the government says there is no contamination, but fails to pinpoint the cause,” he said.
Taking to Twitter, Naidu said, “It’s a shame for any government if it can’t provide basic necessities like safe and clean drinking water to people.” TDP National general secretary Nara Lokesh visited Eluru GGH and interacted with the patients there. He too blamed the government’s negligence as the reason for the health emergency in Eluru. “How can they say there is no water contamination, even before test results came in,” he demanded to know.
Meanwhile, expressing serious concern over hundreds of people in Eluru admitted to hospitals with symptoms of vomiting, diarrhoea, fatigue, fainting, epilepsy and other ailments, Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan asked the government to provide better medical treatment to them.