Two junior engineers arrested

Bhanu P Lohumi

Tribune News Service

Shimla, February 5

The special investigation team (SIT) probing the cause of jaundice outbreak in Shimla today arrested junior engineers RL Gautam and Abhishek Sharma. Officials also questioned the assistant commissioner and the engineer, water works, municipal corporation. The team has sent questionnaires to the member secretary of the Pollution Control Board and the MC Commissioner asking them about the measures taken to maintain the quality of water.

Earlier, the officials arrested the contractor of the sewage treatment plant (STP) and four officials of the Irrigation and Public Health (IPH) Department.

The laxity in disposal of sludge at the plant is being probed by SIT as it found that no mechanism was in place for drying the sludge.

Following reports of water contamination in Ashwani Khud, panic has spread in the city. To save their skin, the officials are playing the blame game.

The supply from Ashwani Khud was stopped on January 2 after a team of the civic body visited the site and found sewage in the water. Still, fresh cases are surfacing every day.

It is learnt that the hepatitis virus had reared its ugly head earlier also. The number was quite alarming in 2007 and 2010.

SIT is scanning all records. The role of various departments entrusted with the maintenance of water quality is being probed.

A statistician has been appointed to assist the team in scrutinising the data while a professor of the National Institute of Technology, Hamirpur, is helping it check the water quality management. The accused are in judicial custody and their bail plea will be heard by the court tomorrow. A person identified as Gopal (50), who was undergoing treatment at the IGMC, reportedly died due to jaundice on Thursday.

He was employed with the Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam (SJVNL). The health authorities have not confirmed the cause of the death so far.

Twenty-three more cases were reported, taking the total number to 1,292 in Shimla.