Vattipalli (Nalgonda): A meeting with any of the fluorosis victims of Nalgonda district is certain to leave even the strongest of men in tears. Twisted legs, rubbery arms, enlarged heads, concave eyes, corroded teeth in all nightmarish bodies that make one’s stomach heave. But then, it’s just another day for “you and me” in paradise as these people continue living in hell.
Is Andhra Pradesh really the shining example of development as proclaimed by Y S Rajasekhara Reddy garu? “What shine is he talking about when our lives have been crippled forever. Not only YSR, successive rulers have all been apathetic towards the fluoride-affected victims,” says Panuganti Tirupathamma, slowly crawling out of her one-room dingy house in this small village of Nalgonda district.
All of 28 years, she looks frail. Suffering from fluorosis a debilitating disease that affects the limbs, stunts body growth and impairs movement completely since she was five, Tirupathamma entered the fray from Munugodu Assembly segment as an independent but her nomination was rejected as she could not state her property assets in the affidavit (as if she has any!). She gets the disabled pension of Rs 500, 35 kg of rice under the Antyodaya card and makes Rs 30-50 a day running an STD booth.
With death staring her in the face constantly, Tirupathamma wanted to fight for the rights of the fluorosis victims who number a shocking 7.5 lakh in this area alone. “My idea was to contest from Nalgonda LS seat as I want to raise my voice in support of the victims but couldn’t afford the Rs 10,000 deposit which I have to furnish to election authorities,” she says.
She had contested the ZPTC poll in 2006 against a Congress leader but lost. But Tirupathamma considers it as a moral victory. “I won in the sense that I provoked the indifferent officials to accept the magnitude of the problem,” she claims.
At the last count, over 7.5 lakh people (2.5 lakh children among them) in 850 villages of the drought-prone district are affected by fluorosis part natural and part man-made disaster. While the permissible limit of fluoride content in water as per WHO norms is 0.5-1 ppm, in many villages it hovers between 1 and 16 ppm (in Batlapalli village, it was an astonishing 28 ppm in the 90s).
During election time, most candidates make the mandatory whistle-stop tour of these villages but the victims are pretty sick of them. “Our hellish lives make for great news reports/photos but no political party has done anything to improve our lives,” hits out Fluorosis Vimukti Porata Samithi convenor Kanchukatla Subhash, who has been spearheading the movement for the last nine years against the governments’ apathy.
Amsala Swamy (27) barely manages to run the STD booth in his Shivannagudem village because of his physical constraints. “If they (ruling party leaders) have children like us, then they will understand the trauma,” says Swamy’s father Satyanarayana, a barber, as he buttons his son’s shirt.
The bare-chested Yanamala Devaiah (55), a farmer of Munnurugudem, is furious. His son has disowned him, he gets 4 kg of rice under the Rs 2-a-kg rice scheme and Rs 200 as monthly pension (that again is because the village sarpanch wrote down his age as 60). Walking with the support of a stick, Devaiah, who already looks like he is in his 80s, says: “I won’t vote this time. We are crippled here but the netas are filling their coffers.”
While some villagers buy water (Rs 8 for a 10-litre pitcher) and store it as if their life depends on it, others pedal or walk their way for 4 to 5 kms to fetch safe drinking water. “Since our village doesn’t get Krishna water, I travel 8 kms,” Appanna, cycling his way to his Namapuram village, says. It is ironical that 22 villages of Marriguda mandal don’t get Krishna water even though they are in striking distance of Nagarjuna Sagar pipeline.
“What crime did we commit that we deserve this treatment from the powers that be? We are only asking for safe drinking water,” says an ex-teacher Subbaraju of Sarrampeta village. Subbaraju has been bedridden for the last 15 years. Sources said all it needs is Rs 250 crore to get safe drinking water to all the 850 affected villages. “YSR has visited Nalgonda district 35 times in the last five years. Each time he visits, the expenditure is Rs 50-55 lakhs. Whose money is it?” bemoans Subhash.
Swamy hits the nail on the head: “Right to water is a misnomer in this part of the world even 61 years after independence.”
Is Andhra Pradesh really the shining example of development as proclaimed by Y S Rajasekhara Reddy garu? “What shine is he talking about when our lives have been crippled forever. Not only YSR, successive rulers have all been apathetic towards the fluoride-affected victims,” says Panuganti Tirupathamma, slowly crawling out of her one-room dingy house in this small village of Nalgonda district.
All of 28 years, she looks frail. Suffering from fluorosis a debilitating disease that affects the limbs, stunts body growth and impairs movement completely since she was five, Tirupathamma entered the fray from Munugodu Assembly segment as an independent but her nomination was rejected as she could not state her property assets in the affidavit (as if she has any!). She gets the disabled pension of Rs 500, 35 kg of rice under the Antyodaya card and makes Rs 30-50 a day running an STD booth.
With death staring her in the face constantly, Tirupathamma wanted to fight for the rights of the fluorosis victims who number a shocking 7.5 lakh in this area alone. “My idea was to contest from Nalgonda LS seat as I want to raise my voice in support of the victims but couldn’t afford the Rs 10,000 deposit which I have to furnish to election authorities,” she says.
She had contested the ZPTC poll in 2006 against a Congress leader but lost. But Tirupathamma considers it as a moral victory. “I won in the sense that I provoked the indifferent officials to accept the magnitude of the problem,” she claims.
At the last count, over 7.5 lakh people (2.5 lakh children among them) in 850 villages of the drought-prone district are affected by fluorosis part natural and part man-made disaster. While the permissible limit of fluoride content in water as per WHO norms is 0.5-1 ppm, in many villages it hovers between 1 and 16 ppm (in Batlapalli village, it was an astonishing 28 ppm in the 90s).
During election time, most candidates make the mandatory whistle-stop tour of these villages but the victims are pretty sick of them. “Our hellish lives make for great news reports/photos but no political party has done anything to improve our lives,” hits out Fluorosis Vimukti Porata Samithi convenor Kanchukatla Subhash, who has been spearheading the movement for the last nine years against the governments’ apathy.
Amsala Swamy (27) barely manages to run the STD booth in his Shivannagudem village because of his physical constraints. “If they (ruling party leaders) have children like us, then they will understand the trauma,” says Swamy’s father Satyanarayana, a barber, as he buttons his son’s shirt.
The bare-chested Yanamala Devaiah (55), a farmer of Munnurugudem, is furious. His son has disowned him, he gets 4 kg of rice under the Rs 2-a-kg rice scheme and Rs 200 as monthly pension (that again is because the village sarpanch wrote down his age as 60). Walking with the support of a stick, Devaiah, who already looks like he is in his 80s, says: “I won’t vote this time. We are crippled here but the netas are filling their coffers.”
While some villagers buy water (Rs 8 for a 10-litre pitcher) and store it as if their life depends on it, others pedal or walk their way for 4 to 5 kms to fetch safe drinking water. “Since our village doesn’t get Krishna water, I travel 8 kms,” Appanna, cycling his way to his Namapuram village, says. It is ironical that 22 villages of Marriguda mandal don’t get Krishna water even though they are in striking distance of Nagarjuna Sagar pipeline.
“What crime did we commit that we deserve this treatment from the powers that be? We are only asking for safe drinking water,” says an ex-teacher Subbaraju of Sarrampeta village. Subbaraju has been bedridden for the last 15 years. Sources said all it needs is Rs 250 crore to get safe drinking water to all the 850 affected villages. “YSR has visited Nalgonda district 35 times in the last five years. Each time he visits, the expenditure is Rs 50-55 lakhs. Whose money is it?” bemoans Subhash.
Swamy hits the nail on the head: “Right to water is a misnomer in this part of the world even 61 years after independence.”
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