Health Minister A. Kali Krishna Srinivas on Tuesday announced that Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has granted an ex-gratia of ₹5 lakh each to the next of kin of 14 persons who have died of pedal edema since March in the Chintoor Agency in East Godavari district. Accordingly, Collector D. Muralidhar will hand over cheques to the bereaved families this week, he said.
Addressing a press conference here, Mr. Srinivas said a preliminary inquiry report on the deaths was submitted to the Chief Minister on Monday night. .
“An expert team of doctors will study the causes for the outbreak of the disease and the fatalities once the results of blood samples, to be collected from each household in the hotspot habitations from Wednesday, are out. A decision on roping in any national-level medical research institute and experts is yet to be taken,” the Minister said.
On the observations drawn from the field visit conducted in the affected areas on Monday, Mr. Srinivas said as many as 103 persons have been found to be suffering from pedal edema which is characterised by swelling of legs and the condition of 16 of them was said to be serious. “The government will take up treatment of the patients,” he added.
‘UV plants soon’
Admitting that as many as 300 tribal habitations in the Chintoor Agency have no access to safe drinking water, he said: “Ultraviolet purification plants will be set up there, initially to check pedal edema cases.”
At a review meeting, the Minister cleared the proposal to set up village clinics in all the 66 panchayats in the Agency. Twenty-six such clinics were proposed recently.
