Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Saturday instructed officials of the Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MA&UD) Department to take up a special drive for repairing old drinking water pipelines and laying new ones wherever needed, to prevent public health hazards like the recent outbreak of gastroenteritis (GE) in Guntur.
In a teleconference with the MA&UD Department, including municipal commissioners, Mr. Naidu said the Guntur incident was a failure of the department, and the government could not afford to have a similar things happen elsewhere. He asked what senior officials were doing when the lower-rung staff failed to solve the problem before it turned worse. He ordered that a detailed report on the circumstances that led to hundreds of people falling ill in Guntur be submitted immediately.
He said the pipelines were also to be cleaned from time to time and priority given to removing silt from drains and covering roads dug for various public utility works.
Mr. Naidu said he would not spare derelict officials and staff if such incidents recur and that protected drinking water schemes were to be maintained in a proper manner.
