Uproar in C'garh assembly over kidney ailment deaths in Supebeda

Opposition Congress moving an adjournment motion notice, created uproar in the Chhattisgarh Assembly on Thursday over the deaths of several villagers in Supebeda in the state's Gariaband district, allegedly due to kidney ailments. Speaker Gaurishankar Agrawal rejected the motion after the state government tabled its reply but 26 Congress MLAs, unsatisfied with the ruling, trooped into the Well of the House and got automatically suspended. Their suspension was withdrawn after few minutes.

Raising the issue after Question Hour, Leader of Opposition T S Singhdeo, state Congress chief Bhupesh Baghel and other MLAs alleged that hundreds of people have succumbed to kidney ailments in Supebeda village under Deobhog development block of Gariaband district.

The Congress leaders demanded that the problem be declared a state calamity.

They reported that the village, with a population of 1,500 had several villagers suffering from kidney ailments. The government itself having examined the borewell water had found high presence of iron, fluoride and other heavy metals.

The State Government has failed to provide clean drinking water to the villagers, the Congress leaders said.

The similar situation prevails in Nisthiguda, Sendmuda, Parewapali, Sagaunbadi, Birliguda and Jhirpani villages close to Supebeda, the Congress legislators said. These villages fall in an area rich in diamond reserves, the Congress said, and accused the government of trying to deliberately get these villages vacated so that the land could be allotted to industrialists.

Every family in the village has kidney patients and the resultant health expenses had forced many of them to sell their lands at cheap price, the opposition leaders said. The boys are unmarried as no one is ready to give any girl to the area, they added.