Gastro spreads in Jawahar Nagar Camp Area?

Congressmen claim so, CS denies

Ludhiana, September 9, 2012: Local Congressmen and Civil Surgeon Dr. Subhash Batta have different tales to tell on the issue of people getting sick in the Jawahar Nagar Camp locality here.

District Congress Committee (Urban) president Pawan Dewan issued a release this evening stating that about three dozen residents of Jawahar Nagar Camp locality are suffering from gastroenteritis because of the supply of polluted tapped water.

Dewan said he alongwith other partymen visited local hospitals to meet the patients undergoing treatment there. He even released a few pictures of his visit to the local hospitals and enquiring about the recovery of the patients.

According to the Congress release, the locality residents were complaining of loose motions and vomiting. He told that the affected people included men, women and children.   He alleged that the government officials, including the health officials, remained uninformed about spread of the disease because of holiday today. He regretted that no timely action had been initiated by the authorities concerned.

Further, the Congress leaders have alleged that the locality residents were complaining of getting polluted water over the period but the authorities never took the complaints seriously. They told that the situation got deteriorated during the last three days after occurrence of the rain.

They told that the patients were undergoing treatment in different private hospitals. The number of patients were risen today following which hue and cry was raised, they said. When Dewan learnt about the situation , he visited local hospitals to meet the patients. They claimed that 30-35 patients were undergoing treatment.  

When contacted, the Ludhiana Civil Surgeon, Dr. Subhash Batta told that they too learnt about the situation this evening. However, he said the patients had started complaining of vomiting and loose motions 5-7 days ago. He categorically told that preliminary enquiries revealed that it was not an “epidemic” and patients did not suffer either from gastroenteritis or Cholera. He told that patients got sick because of different reasons.

“The water samples will be taken from the area tomorrow”, he said. He told that the health officials teams were sent to the locality this evening and the situation was under control. Still, he told that patients not more than 12 were undergoing treatment in different private hospitals.

Whose initiative?

Enquiries conducted by City Air News revealed that the Ludhiana DCC (Urban) president Pawan Dewan has taken an initiative to highlight the situation prevailing in Jawahar Nagar Camp locality following which the media persons started conducting enquiries of the health authorities. Then, the health authorities wake up and started activities in this regard.