Fluorosis Vimukthi Porata Samithi (FVMS), an NGO working on the issue for the past two decades, has urged the Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Jagat Prakash Nadda, to establish Regional Fluoride Mitigation and Research Centre (RFMRC) in the district.

Presenting a representation to the Union Minister during his visit to Marriguda mandal here on Tuesday, convenor of FVMS, Kanchukatla Subhash, said the RFMRC, proposed to be set up at Malkapur village near Choutuppal by the Central government, has been kept in cold storage despite the Centre granting Rs. 100 crore.

“And the Telangana government allotted 8.5 acres of land for the project, but it failed to take off for unknown reasons,” he complained.

He observed that there was a serious need to set up the RFMRC, the objective of which was to carry out research on fluoride-related issues across south India. Explaining the suffering of fluorosis victims in Nalgonda, Mr. Subhash informed Mr. Nadda that there were 16.5 lakh affected persons in the district alone. Though the entire district has been suffering from the fluoride issue, he said only 1,150 out of 3,477 villages were connected with surface drinking water supply. The FVMS convenor appealed to the Union Minister to liberally allocate funds in the budget to connect all the villages with surface water supply for drinking and irrigation purposes since the researchers have also found that the consumption of food irrigated with groundwater having high fluoride content posing a serious threat to health.

The FVMS urged the Centre to issue separate disability cards to the victims of fluorosis to enable them get some special benefits. Sadguru Prasad, coordinator of Fluoride Knowledge and Action Network, and others were present.

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