Gastroenteritis: CM orders crackdown on hotels

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, JULY 25. The Chief Minister, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu, has ordered a crackdown on hotels and eateries found to be supplying unsafe and contaminated drinking water.

``Go all out against people who endanger public health. Get some of them arrested, if necessary. You can even seal them (hotels) off,'' he told the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad and Health and related authorities on Tuesday.

He was talking to Collectors and officials at the weekly video- conference in which several Ministers, the Chief Secretary, senior secretaries, HoDs and others participated.

The focus of public health, in the context of the incidence of gastroenteritis (GE), was on Hyderabad and environs which accounted for 211 out of 306 cases reported so far this year.

The Minister for Roads and Buildings, Mr. K. Vijayarama Rao, who represents Hyderabad, said that they had been able to trace the addresses of about 160 of the 165 GE cases. Of this, 73 cases were attributed to drinking water and 72 to contaminated food. Fiftyone suffered GE on account of consuming water from the Hyderabad metro water system, 17 from pit taps and 5 from borewells. Most of them were from the old city.

Mr. L. V. Subrahmanyam, Hyderabad Metro Water MD, said pit taps posed a major problem and that people continued to drink from borewells 'painted red'. The routine sources were all chlorinated and none of the cases was of really of serious nature.

Mr. P. K. Mohanty, Commissioner, MCH, said nearly 1200 hotels, meat shops and other places were raided and licences cancelled in some cases. The MCH recruited 2500 ``link volunteers'' to educate the people about the dangers of unsafe water.

Mr. Chandrababu Naidu asked the MCH and the Hyderabad Metro Water chief executives to go all out against erring hotels and other sources and take action against officials who failed to perform and control the GE incidence. He repeatedly asked Mr. Subrahmanyam to spell out what action was taken in respect of the 51 cases where water supplied by Hyderabad Metro was the cause.

He suggested that the MCH issue ads warning people against going to hotels named by it as they contained unsafe water. The Minister for Major Irrigation, Mr. M. Venkateswara Rao, suggested that a meeting of hoteliers be convened to give them reasonable time to mend and then take action.

Today's video-meet showed Mr. Naidu as a man in a hurry, impatient to deliver. Quite a few officials were ticked off for not measuring up to his expectations.

In the very first minute, he was put off when told that the Collectors of Anantapur and Guntur could not be accessed due to some technical snag. ``Where is the MD (of AP Technology Services)?. The entire Government is here and he sits in his office. This is irresponsibility,'' he flared up.

Reviewing progress of seed collection and sowing of forestry plantation, the Chief Minister faulted the Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) of Warangal for poor performance when neighbouring districts did well.

When the Minister for Law, Mr. P. Chandrasekhar, from Mahbubnagar-end, did most of the talking, Mr. Naidu quipped,``Have you taken over the entire administration. Where are the Collector and others?''

There was a roar of laughter as the Minister explained that the Collector, the District Medical and the Health Officer were on leave, the additional DM & HO was away in Delhi on duty while the Joint Collector's post was vacant. Turning to the Chief Secretary, Mr. P. V. Rao, the Chief Minister said: ``This is a reflection on you and also on me. Fill the vacancy.''

The Collector of Adilabad said he found the medical officer of a PHC in Adilabad absent during his inspection. Mr. Naidu asked him to suspend the doctor.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Southern States
Previous : Police strategy against naxalites pays off
Next     : 14 arrested in Transco raids