Villagers drain 36acre lake after HIV woman drowns in it

TNN
December 5, 2018

Hubballi, Dec 5:The residents of Morab, around 30km from Hubballi, have refused to drink water from their village lake after an HIV-positive woman committed suicide by jumping into it a week ago. Unable to convince them, the authorities are now draining the water from the 36-acre lake — roughly the size of 25 football fields — which they hope to refill with water from the Malaprabha canal. The Morab lake is the biggest in Navalgund taluk and the only source of drinking water for villagers and cattle. As of now, villagers trek 2-3km to the Malaprabha canal to fetch water.

“This is unfortunate. We have been telling people not to panic as HIV does not spread through water. But the people are not convinced and they have started draining out the lake,” said Dharwad district health officer Dr Rajendra Doddamani. The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) spreads only through body fluids. Outside the human body, the virus cannot survive beyond minutes in air or water.

Dr Glory Alexander, founder-director of Asha Foundation, which treats HIV+ patients, said it was a case of fear rather than stigma. “It’s sheer ignorance stemming from lack of awareness. When an HIV-positive person dies, the virus also dies. Even if the virus comes out of the body, it cannot survive in water and dies in a couple of seconds. There is no risk of infection spreading from the water,” she said.

The body of the woman was found in the lake on November 29. Word immediately spread the water had been contaminated, creating panic. Villagers refused to drink the water and pressured the gram panchayat and the Navalgund taluk administration to drain the lake. Authorities tried to convince the villagers that the water was not contaminated and that they would test the water, but no one relented. The authorities have now deployed 20 siphon tubes with four motors to pump out the water.

We’re trekking 2-3km to fetch water from Malaprabha canal, say villagers

We found the body in a highly decomposed state,” said Muttanna Bhavaikatti, from Morab village. “We don’t want to consume contaminated water. We are trekking 2-3km to fetch water from the Malaprabha right bank canal that flows through Morab,” he said.

Pradeep Hanikere, another villager, said the daily hardship was preferable to drinking water from the lake. “Do the officials drink bottled water if they find dirt or a speck in it? If they can’t, then how can they force us to drink water from the lake where we found the body of a woman,” he said.

Another villager pointed out, “We would have consumed the water if it was the body of a normal person, but the woman died of HIV. There is no other way. The authorities must drain out water and fill it with fresh water to save the lives of villagers.”

Gram panchayat member Laxman Patil said the villagers refused to see reason, so pipes have been sucking water out for the past four days. “We managed to drain out lakhs of litres, and discharged the water in a nearby stream. We still have to drain water from 60% of the lake and need at least five days to empty it,” he said. There is another problem, though. “The taluk administration wants us to complete the task by December 6. They have warned the Malaprabha right canal will be closed after December 8, so we have to fill the water into lake before that. More than 50 people are involved in pumping out water. We will need 1-2 weeks to empty and fill the lake.”

Navalgund tahsildar Naveen Hullur said: “We tried to convince people to drink the lake water but they refused. We offered to conduct tests to prove the water is fit to drink. I will talk to officials to allow us to fill the lake from Malaprabha canal till December 20 or 22.”

Comments

Reshma kodialbail
 - 
Wednesday, 5 Dec 2018

Those villagers only going to face afternmath of this senseless action. At that time they may blame administration

Subbu Acharya
 - 
Wednesday, 5 Dec 2018

36acre lake..! Mad people. Drinking water scarcity rise day by day.

Vinod
 - 
Wednesday, 5 Dec 2018

These people are mad. Uneducated. They could use some commonsense

Shahir
 - 
Wednesday, 5 Dec 2018

What ever awareness done among people wont work while they are going face such situation. People think about only themselves. 

Unknown
 - 
Wednesday, 5 Dec 2018

Ousiders will tell anything. But when if you are going to face such incident, nobody will think positively and wont take risk

Viggu Vignesh
 - 
Wednesday, 5 Dec 2018

Strange people

Sandesh Shetty
 - 
Wednesday, 5 Dec 2018

Bizare incident

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News Network
January 3,2020

Chamarajanagar, Jan 3: The residents of Galipura layout in Chamarajanagar city boycotted the annual Community Based Survey (CBS), conducted by the Health and Family Welfare department, mistaking it to be the National Register of Citizens (NRC).

Majority of the residents in the layout belong to Muslim community. The people, who mistook CBS to the NRC survey, got into arguments with the Asha workers, who were given the responsibility of collecting information. They even tore the forms into pieces and vent their ire.

The Health Department conducts CBS every year in the urban areas and collects all details including Aadhaar number, residential address, details of family members, health problems and others.

Fifteen Asha workers were deputed for the survey in the layout. A few youths started questioning them alleging it to be an NRC survey and started arguing with them.
Tahsildar Mahesh, District Health and Family Welfare Officer Dr N C Ravi, with the help of Muslim leaders cleared the confusion. The community leaders assured of explaining it to the residents and extend cooperation to the survey.

Comments

abdullah
 - 
Sunday, 5 Jan 2020

Its not the fault of the residents.  Sanghis are planning to approach citizins disguised as health workers and else to get  details of residents.   such trouble makers should be noted and handed over to police.   Police should arrest such fake people and put in jail.   such fake people are trying to terrify poors and collect money assuring to help them.   So, please be careful.   

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Agencies
July 25,2020

New Delhi, Jul 25: Nearly a year after Cafe Coffee Day founder V.G. Siddhartha's death, the probe committee appointed by the Board of Coffee Day Enterprises Ltd (CDEL) has given a virtual clean chit to private equity investors and the Income Tax Department who were named in his last letter.
The investigation report noted that Siddhartha may have felt "aversive behavioural stimulus" due to persistent reminders from the PE investors and other lenders.

"However, such reminders and follow-ups by the PE investors and lenders are not something which are beyond normal industry practices and we believe that PE investors were acting as per accepted legal and business norms," said that report.

It further said that the investigators were not provided with any documentary evidence to show any "advertent or inadvertent harassment" from the Income Tax Department.

It however, said that the financial records suggest a serious liquidity crunch which may have arisen due to the attachment of Mindtree shares by the IT Department.

Further, the probe revealed that MACEL, a private firm of Siddhartha, owes Rs 2,693 crore to Coffee Day Enterprises, which the report says, "needs to be addressed".

The Cafe Coffee Day founder's body was fished out of the Netravathi river in Karnataka by a group of fishermen on July 31 last year, a day after he went missing.

His last note raised several questions about the role of investors, and tax officials.

He had written: "Tremendous pressure from other lenders lead to me succumbing to the situation. There was a lot of harassment from the previous DG Income Tax in the form of attaching our shares on two separate occasions to block our Mindtree deal and then taking possession of our Coffee Day shares, although the revised returns have been filed by us. This was very unfair and has led to a serious liquidity crunch."

The massive shock to the industry and the country also led the government to assure that tax officials would not harass businessmen and the situation would improve.

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News Network
May 4,2020

Mangaluru, May 4: In order to protect the frontline coronavirus fighters from the pathogen, students at Sahyadri College of Engineering & Management has developed face shields that will help the front-line healthcare workers.

Mr Johnson Tellis - Chief Innovation Officer, Mr Gautham Nayak - Design Engineer and DreamWorks Makerspacerun by determined students, supported by Sahyadri Start-up ecosystem, at Sahyadri College of Engineering & Management has headed the team.

The team took the initiative along with other maker communities in Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi and the likes, with a pledge to produce and deliver 1 Million face shields across India. In three weeks, the team has contributed to the cause and delivered more than3500 face shields and a ventilator splitter for the Dakshina Kannada and Shimoga region.

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