Deputy Mayor of Shimla Municipal Corporation Mr. Tekinder Singh Panwer who is whistle blower of contamination of drinking water supply scheme of three district today sounds alert for Shimla, Solan and Sirmour district stating that National Institution of Virology confirmed prevalence of Hepatitis E virus in most of the sources after scare of epidemic jaundice outbreak in Shimla town already declared epidemic by the civic body.
Deputy Mayor said that report indicates the Shimla Municipal Corporation stand that jaundice was spread from Sewerage Treatment Plant Malayana exposing Himachal Pradesh Virbhadra Singh Government and BJP local legislator Mr. Suresh Bhardwaj that it was infested from faulty sewerage lines.
The report indicates that Hepatitis-E RNA(Ribose Nucleic Acid) exist in all the seven samples that NIV had taken itself on Jan 28 and 29 from different places in Shimla and Solan.
The same genome of Hep E exists in the affluent in the inlet of STP Malayana and its outlet at the outskirt of Shimla town, at the inlet of Water Supply Scheme Ashwani Khud, at water tanks of infected patients at Chhota Shimla and three-month-old unused storage tank in the Capital town.
The report also found that about three samples taken by it from the inlet of Water lifting scheme on Ashwani Khud at Solan in storage and treated water of Solan town and tap in the Solan town is infested with the same virus.
We again sound the high alert in Shimla, Solan and Sirmour district that virus prevalence is on the alarming scale which polluted the drinking water sources and schemes at 30 km downstream.
A high-level meeting was convened along with all top officials at Secretariat Shimla today after having NIV report. It is unfortunate that State government and Local MLA are passing the buck on the Shimla MC for faulty supply but when the same source polluted water sources at Solan and other places it exposed the State Government.
If Shimla MC had not stopped taking of contaminated water of Ashwani Khud water lift scheme on Jan 2 onward it would have caused kaleidoscopic affect though the number of Jaundice patients might touch more than four thousand in Shimla alone, he added.
