The proposed Regional Fluoride Mitigation and Research Centre (RFMRC) in Nalgonda district has been kept in cold storage with no progress on the project.

The Rs. 100-crore worth project was proposed to house a 100-bed hospital to exclusively treat fluoride victims besides taking up research on the fluoride content in water and its impact on human beings.

The Union government had decided to set up one RFMRC each at Nalgonda in Telangana and one in Gujarat in 2012. The task of executing the project was entrusted to National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), Hyderabad. The premier institution in turn appointed Deputy Director Arun L. Kandhare to oversee the project.

The district administration and NIN had identified 10-acre land at Dandumalkapur village very close to NH-65, located just 45 km away from the State capital. Officials told that all arrangements were made for calling for tenders, but due to unforeseen reasons there is no progress.

The activists fighting for safe drinking water supply to fluoride-hit habitations in the district and the victims fear that political pressure from other States could see the prestigious project being shifted out of the State.

Speaking to The Hindu, Jala Sadhana Samiti president Dusharla Satyanarayana, a water rights activist, appealed to the State government to exert pressure on the Centre to immediately finalise the tenders and start the work.

“The construction of the project will raise the hopes of people, especially those suffering from fluorosis since decades, because treatment is offered free of cost at their doorsteps,” he maintained.

Fluoride Vimukti Porta Samiti president Kanchukatla Subhash said that as many as 1,155 habitations out of 3,387 are affected with fluoride officially, though the number is very high unofficially.

Taking the gravity of fluoride impact on human beings into consideration, he urged the Centre to start the works without any delay.

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