Alarmed at the death of three persons in Balangir district in the last week, the State Government on Sunday warned the Public Health Executive Engineers that they would be held responsible for outbreak of jaundice in their respective areas.
“The department has already prepared a file for action against the executive engineer of Balangir PH Division,” Urban Development Minister Pushpendra Singhdeo told reporters on Sunday.
Besides, Singhdeo said, “If the killer disease spreads its wings in any district, PH executive engineers of that that district would be held responsible. A letter in this regard will be sent to all district Collectors soon.”
Notably, Jaundice has already played havoc in Sambalpur district taking more 20 lives and so also in other districts, including Balangir.
Members cutting across party lines had raised the issue in the recently-concluded State Assembly session demanding a clarification from the Urban Development Minister.
Meanwhile, Public Health Chief Engineer Khitish Chandra Sahu has said that since the drinking water to Balangir town is supplied from Sonepur, which is at a distance of 54 km, it has become extremely difficult to know the reasons for the contamination of water.
Though he admitted that 12 cracks in the pilepline have been noticed in the recent past, there is no reply from any official why the department did not take any step in time to repair or replace these pipelines in time.
Sahu said there is a need to replace the existing pipelines in Balangir town most of which were laid more than 30 years ago.
Though there are proposals from other districts for replacement of old pipelines, the Government has neither taken any steps and nor made budgetary allocations for replacement of these old pipelines.