Chhattisgarh Governor Anusuiya Uikey on Tuesday visited Supebeda village whose residents have been battling kidney-related ailments for the past several years, to take stock of the situation there, officials said.
Uikey, who was accompanied by Health and Family Welfare Minister T S Singhdeo, assured villagers that better medical facilities will be provided to the affected people, they said.
Supebeda, in Gariaband district, is located nearly 12 km from Deobhog town in a naxal-hit area adjoining Odisha.
The village is around 220 km away from the state capital, Raipur.
According to villagers, the kidney-related ailments have claimed 71 lives in the last one decade.
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"The governor, accompanied by the states Health and Family Welfare Minister, took stock of the situation in the village and interacted with local to know about their problems," said an official from the government's public relations department.
Uikey told villagers those suffering from such ailments will be provided free treatment in DKS Super Specialty Hospital and All-India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) in Raipur, he said.
She said the kin accompanying such patients will be provided free meals and lodging facilities in the premises of these hospitals in the state capital, he said.
Meanwhile, the governor also directed authorities to start the water filter plant installed in the village, upgrade the Community Health Centre at Deobhog to the level of a civil hospital and set up a blood bank there, the official said.
Interacting with the villagers, the governor said it was very painful to know that residents of Supebeda have been suffering from kidney-related ailments for such a long time.
Uikey said she along with the administration takes the responsibility to tackle the menace, the official said.
After coming to know about the problem through local villagers and media, I decided to visit Supebeda to take stock of the situation.
"If affected villagers need any kind of help, they can directly contact me or the health minister, she said.
Uikey also shared her phone number with villagers.
The governor informed villagers that health camps will be organised in Supebeda and nearby villages from time to time, he said.
She asserted that results of the steps taken by the government to tackle the problem should be evident at the ground level, the official said.
Minister Singhdeo informed that a sum of Rs 10.8 crore has been sanctioned to construct a bridge near Sendmuda village on the Tel river to improve the connectivity to Supebeda, the official said.
Moreover, another Rs 14 crore has been allocated to set up a filter plant in the Tel river to supply clean drinking water to Supebeda, the minister said.
Government authorities were yet to find the exact cause of widespread kidney ailments in Supebeda's residents, though some official examinations have revealed contaminated drinking water could be one of the possible reasons.
According to government authorities, an excessive content of fluoride and arsenic were reported in the groundwater of the village.
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