Employees of the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board on Monday pleaded with Minister for Municipal Administration and Urban Development Anam Ramnarayan Reddy to drop the
criminal cases registered against 5 officials of the board over the contaminated water supply to the Bholakpur area.
Members of the Water Board Engineers Association met Ramnarayan Reddy at his chambers in the Secretariat, and submitted a memorandum which stated that the officials charged with negligence are innocent.
The employees also said that the registration of criminal cases against the officials was lowering their morale and confidence.
Reminding the minister that the Chief General Manager (Engineering), General Manager (Engineering), Dy General Manager (Engineering), Manager (Engineering) and Technician Grade-II, were arrested by the sleuths of the Central Crime Station on July 29 on the contamination of drinking water in Bholakpur area reported on 4 May 2009, the employees argued that the entire case was a 'trial by media'. They said the media had projected the cause of diarrhoea and vomiting of Bholakpur residents was solely due to the consumption of contaminated water.
The employees claimed that the electronic and print media had blown up the issue so out of proportion that in no case a post mortem was conducted to ascertain the cause of death.
The employees reminded that water supply to the localities was stopped immediately, but the reports of the disease continued to come in even after 4 to 5 days.
Even the viscera of the victims were not preserved, a fact observed by Justice B Subhashan Reddy, Chairperson of A P State Human Rights Commission.
The employees reminded that the SHRC had said that if the viscera of the victims had been preserved and tested by a Forensic Science Laboratory, it could have been established as to whether or not the deaths have occurred due to consumption of polluted water.
One another important factor, according to the memorandum, is that pollution isn't because of the quality of water released from the source, but pollution at the local point where the water has been supplied through a pipeline, thanks to the tanneries are functioning there illegally.
The employees said that the minister must take the points raised into consideration, and urged him to drop the criminal cases framed against the 5 officials from the Board.
Courtesy: INN