Dealers poison water by dumping spurious potash

Ongole: In a hurry to keep themselves away from the clutches of law, the dealers of spurious potash are playing with the lives of public and cattle in Prakasam and Guntur districts.

Due to the continuous raids by the officials of the Vigilance and Enforcement Department and Agriculture Department in the district, the dealers stocking the spurious potash in their godowns started discarding the bags in the water bodies and damaging them.

Sepaking to the media here on Tuesday, the V&E officer, BT Naik said that they had collected murate of potassium samples from Sagar canal and Gundlakamma rivulet in Tripurantakam and other places. 

He said that they were unable to find out the exact number of bags that were dumped into the water bodies but observed a heavy red oxide color residue in them.

Dr K Srinivas, a physician in Ongole said that consumption of the water contaminated with the spurious potash was nothing but consuming poison.

 He advised the greedy dealers of the fertilizers to discard the stock somewhere else than dumping the chemicals into the water bodies so that they will not be liable for the deaths of cattle and public.

On the other hand, the V&E regional officer for Prakasam district, M Rajani announced that her officers raided two places in Yerragondapalem mandal and seized 163 bags of spurious potash. 

She said criminal cases were booked on the offenders after collecting the mediators report.