CM YS Jagan Mohan Reddy orders all tests across West Godavari

Amaravati: Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy held a video conference on the cause for illness in Eluru with experts. AIIMS, Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) and other reputed institutions have confirmed that the residues of pesticides could be the reason for outbreak of the mysterious disease in Eluru.

The Chief Minister said all types of tests should be conducted so that incidents like Eluru do not repeat.

He said focus should be on maintenance of dumping yards and instructed the officials to conducts all possible tests across West Godavari district.

The Chief Minister instructed to test drinking water samples from all sources in all the districts. The samples should be collected systematically and should be analysed with experts, he said. All these tests should be analysed and necessary measures be taken accordingly.

The Chief Minister said AIIMS and IICT should conduct a deep study on long term on the causes of outbreak in Eluru and asked the chief secretary to prepare an action plan for the same.

He said organic farming should be encouraged and awareness should be created on the same among the farmers through Rythu Bharosa Kendras (RBKs). Agriculture department should focus on withdrawing harmful pesticides from the market, he said. Public health labs should be strengthened in every district. Samples should be collected regularly, tested and necessary measures should be taken accordingly, he said and added that a plan should be made to setup three state level labs.

AIIMS, New Delhi, reported that lead was detected in the blood of the patients and nickel was found in all the milk samples. They said orgonochlorine was the reason for illness in the patients and pesticides could be the reason for the presence of orgonochlorine and would have entered the human body in the process of food cycle.

They said lead was found in blood samples of relatives of patients and long term study is needed on it. Exact reason for the illness would be known after analysing sample of food, drinking water and vegetables for few months.

IICT experts said that 21 samples of water were collected along with blood samples of people and animals. No traces of heavy metals like lead, nickel and arsenic were found in water samples and also pesticide residues were not found in water samples. Endosulfan and DDT were traced in blood samples. Lead was found in some blood samples and no traces of orgonophosphates were found, they said.

National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) Hyderabad has conducted tests on air pollution in Eluru and said the pollution of air was in permissible limits. They have tested underground water and surface water and found all metals are in permissible limits except mercury. No traces of orgonochlorine, orgonophosphates or lead were found in water.

Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad, said no bacteria or virus was found in the samples. National Institute of Virology, Pune, reported that no evidence was found to prove viral infection. National Institution of Nutrition, Hyderabad reported that residues of pesticides were found in the samples of tomato and brinjal and these pesticides could be the reason for the illness. Representative of World Health Organization( WHO ), Dr Ashish said focus should be laid on finding how the residues of pesticides entered the human body and the committee constituted by government should work on it.

Representatives of NIN, IICT, AIIMS, New Delhi, AIIMS, Mangalgiri, NCDC, NIV participated in the video conference.

Deputy Chief Minister Alla Krishna Srinivas, West Godavari district collector Mutyalaraju participated from Eluru. Minister Botcha Satyanarayana, chief secretary Nilam Sawhney, special chief secretary Poonam Malakondaiah, health principal secretary Anil Kumar Singhal, health commissioner Katamaneni Bhaskar and other officials were present at meeting.