After monkeys, man’s body found in drinking water tank in Nalgonda
Responding to the incident, BRS working president KT Rama Rao came down heavily on the State government for its negligence and said it was putting the lives of people in danger by not maintaining drinking water tanks properly.
Nalgonda: Discovery of a decomposed human body on Monday in a water tank that supplies drinking water to Hindupur area of Nalgonda municipality has triggered serious concerns over the safety of drinking water, particularly in the backdrop of carcasses of about 30 monkeys being found in a drinking water tank, also in Nalgonda barely a month ago.
The incident, especially after water was supplied from the tank to over 50 houses, has angered local people apart from eliciting sharp responses from various quarters over the apathy and lethargy on part of officials.
The official machinery, however, denied that the body was in the water tank when water was released on May 30 and June 1, claiming that they had cleaned the tank then. However, according to initial investigations by the police, the body was identified as of Avula Vamsikrishna, a resident of Hanuman Nagar, who went missing on May 24.
On Monday, it was during a routine check of the water tank that the body was found. Even as the police registered a case and launched an investigation into the incident, local people are protesting against the negligence of officials, alleging that they were supplied water from the tank for the last 10 days.
Responding to the incident, BRS working president KT Rama Rao came down heavily on the State government for its negligence and said it was putting the lives of people in danger by not maintaining drinking water tanks properly.
Reminding the Nagarjuna Sagar incident in which carcasses of about 30 monkeys were found in a drinking water tank, he slammed the government stating that it had failed in providing safe drinking water to the people. Public health was thrown to the winds by the Congress regime, he said, adding that if the government did not mend its ways, people would throw it out of power.
“Through Mission Bhagiratha, the decades-old drinking water woes were addressed. But the current inefficient government cannot even ensure proper maintenance of drinking water tanks,” Rama Rao posted on X.
Meanwhile, Nalgonda municipal authorities said the incident came to light after the Municipal AE and water lineman went to open the tank and check cleanliness on Monday before releasing water.
“Water was last checked and released on May 30 and June 1 and on those days no dead body was found in the water. The tank is regularly cleaned in 2-3 days and there is a regular cleaning scheduled every 3 days with scrounging,” they claimed, adding that during preliminary medical investigation, the body was found to be two to three days old. “Detailed postmortem is ongoing. There are some injury marks on the body,” they said.
Meanwhile, even after officials claimed that the contaminated water was not supplied to any houses, the District Medical and Health Officer visited 50 houses where drinking water was supplied from the particular water tank.
The health officer said no health problems were noticed among the residents. Police said the person was known to be mentally unstable and was reported missing from May 24.
Multiple angles of suicide and murder are being probed, they said. In April, carcasses of 30 monkeys were found in a water tank in Nalgonda’s Nandikonda municipality.
The monkeys were said to have fallen into the tank while trying to drink water and drowned. After the recovery of the carcasses, residents were worried as they were consuming water from the tank till three days before the incident.
