In a month, over 300 down with diarrhoea

Aparna Banerji

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, January 14

Hundreds of people have taken ill due to a diarrhoea outbreak in the ward number 40 of the city.

Hordes of people in the Shaheed Babu Labh Singh Nagar and New Rattan Nagar areas of the city have fallen ill in January. The ward is straightaway being blamed on the MC authorities both by the area councillor and the residents who said no steps were being taken to plug leaks even though the said areas of the ward were getting contaminated water for a long time.

Residents of street number 5, 6, 7 and 9 of the New Shaheed Babu Labh Singh Nagar, street number 10 of the Labh Singh Nagar and street number 5, 6, 7 of the New Rattan Nagar have been worst hit by the outbreaks.

Meanwhile, even as homes after homes have residents admitted to hospitals due to various diseases, primarily diarrhoea, so far neither has the health department thought it important to hold a health camp in the area, nor the municipal corporation staff has taken proactive measures to plug the leaks responsible for conyaminated water supply in the New Rattan Nagar Area.

Area councillor Pardeep Rai said as many as 300 people in the area were ill. He said he had made complaints to the Commissioner, Municipal Corporation, regarding the issue on January 6 and the Joint Commissioner had also told him the problem would be looked into, in two days, so far the areas continue to get contaminated water.

“A complaint was also made to the civil surgeon on January 12. Before this, three months ago, a complaint had also been made to the Mayor of the Municipal Corporation, but the magnitude of the problem has not been considered. While in the New Shaheed Babu Labh Singh Nagar, MC teams had been deputed to find the fault which was causing the contamination, so far they haven’t been found. The teams are also currently on the job. Meanwhile, in the New Rattan Nagar, at a number of places, pipes ferrying water from the tube well have developed leaks due to which water from the dirty nullah is mixing with drinking water supply. This has happened at a couple of places by the nullah but so far MC men haven’t fixed the leak.

As a councillor, I don’t have the resources to spend money on a work of that level,” said councillor Pardeep Rai.

While health teams have taken water samples in the area yesterday, so far no health camp has been held in the area.

Civil Surgeon Dr RL Bassan said, “No camp has been held so far because the problem is not very widespread. There is no outbreak and there are only some cases but we will depute our teams tomorrow to look into the area.”