Nalgonda: Anti-fluorosis crusader awarded honorary doctorate

Subash said he was dedicating his honorary doctorate to all those who lost their lives due to fluorosis

Nalgonda: The Chennai-based Asia International Culture Research University has conferred a honorary doctorate to Fluorosis Vimukthi Porata Samithi leader Kanchukatla Subash in recognition of his struggle to liberate his native district of Nalgonda from the clutches of fluorosis.

Sharing his experiences during the 35 years of the anti-fluorosis movement, which was aimed at building pressure on the government to solve the fluorosis issue, and narrating how fluorosis victims turned emotional when Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao laid the foundation for the Shivannagudem reservoir, Subash said the lives of lakhs of people in Nalgonda district were thrown off track due to the fluoride issue.

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Recalling that people of Bathalapalli had to be relocated in the mid 1980’s because the fluoride level was 28 ppm, one of the highest recorded levels of fluoride in groundwater, he said earlier governments had denied the people access to safe drinking water, which was among the fundamental rights envisaged in Article 21 in the Constitution of India.

After years of struggles, it was finally Mission Bhagiratha, under which safe drinking water was being supplied to every house including those in fluorosis-affected areas, that freed the region from the grip of fluoride.

Requests and warnings to the rulers of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh by fluorosis victims as a part of their agitation did not work out, but Chandrashekhar Rao, who toured the affected areas in Nalgonda for three days and even wrote a song on the pathetic situation there, himself took measures to solve the issue after the formation of Telangana State.

The Shivannagudem reservoir, which has 11.9 TMC capacity of water storage, was among these.

The people of in Nalgonda will always remain indebted to the KCR government for providing safe drinking water to every house under Mission Bhagiratha, which has saved about 8.5 lakh children from fluorisis in the last eight years, he said, adding that the once the Shivannagudem reservoir was completed, the the fluoride content in the groundwater would dip normal levels.

Subash said he was dedicating his honorary doctorate to all those who lost their lives due to fluorosis.