The Chhattisgarh Assembly on July 5 witnessed uproar over the deaths of several villagers in Supebeda in the state's Gariaband district, allegedly due to kidney ailments, with the opposition party moving an adjournment motion notice on it.
 

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. 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 alleged that the village, with a population of 1,500, had several residents suffering from kidney ailments and added that the examination of borewell water there had shown high presence of iron, fluoride and other heavy metals.

The state government had failed to provide clean drinking water to the villagers, the Congress leaders said. The situation is similar 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 theresultant health expenses had forced many of them to sell their lands, the opposition leaders said. They alleged that the deaths were a result of lack of medical facilities and doctors at the Deobhog community health centre. In his reply, Chhattisgarh Health and Family Welfare Minister Ajay Chandrakar refuted the charges and stated that it was incorrect to say that villagers were dying in Supebeda due to kidney ailments.

The minister said urea and creatinine was found in excess of permissible limits in the bloodstream of the villagers in Supebeda and this was a matter of concern. He said efforts were on to find out the exact cause of this presence. Chandrakar said that fluoride was detected at levels higher than permissible limits in the water being drawn by hand-pumps in the village and the state government had collected soil and water samples for testing.

As many as 16 borewells, which were providing contaminated water, had been shut and fresh water was being provided from two new borewells dug in Nisthiguda, he said. A mega health camp was organised between May 22 and July 11 last year in Supebeda and nearby villages and 2,400 patients from the area were examined, the minister said. Blood samples of 2,106 of these patients were examined and excess content of urea and creatinine was found in the samples of 239 patients, he said.

Specialist doctors and experts both from government and private hospitals had camped in the area, he said. Moreover, medical research institutes like ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) and National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) had also tried to identify the cause of the problem but no concrete results were found, he said. The minister further said he had approached the Union Health Minister to have the ICMR carry out extensive tests again.

A dialysis unit is being set up in Gariaband district hospital while the sub-health centre at Nishthiguda, two kilometres away from Supebeda, is being developed into a Health and Wellness Centre, he said. Following the minister's reply, Speaker Gaurishankar Agrawal rejected the Congress' adjournment motion. The Speaker later revoked the suspension of the 26 Congress MLAs who had trooped into the Well of the House after the adjournment motion had been rejected.