Arsenic in water: Sonbhadra admn told to form panel

The Allahabad High Court has asked the District Magistrate and Chief Medical Officer of Sonbhadra to form a committee to look into the issue of arsenic contamination of drinking water in several villages in the district. It has also directed the Indian Institute of Toxicology to prepare a report in this regard and submit before the court in a sealed cover.  The court has fixed February 25 as the next date of hearing in the matter.

A division bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice Suneet Kumar passed the order in this regard while hearing a PIL filed by Sakshi Singh and eight others, all law interns with the Human Rights Law network.  The PIL was filed after a fact finding team of the interns was sent to Sonbhadra, following publication of a story related to the problems in a weekly magazine. “The court has asked the CMO and the DM to constitute a committee to look into the issue, as our fact-finding team found out that several villages were facing problems of disability due to high content of arsenic, fluoride and other such substances in their water,” said counsel for the petitioner, Smriti Kartikeya.