It was celebration time on Tuesday for about 200 families that suffered losses in last year’s GAIL pipeline blast incident.
GAIL (India) Limited has organised a get-together at newly established Boyi Bheemanna Skill Development Centre at Mamidikuduru on the eve of the Sankanti festival. Keeping in line with the tradition of the Sankranti festival, new clothes, food items and materials were distributed to the families gathered there.
The GAIL also donated a ‘mobile medical van’ for the village and nearby areas in the East Godavari region. The medical mobile van will cover about 10 villages in a week in the region.
Deputy Chief Minister N. China Rajappa, who was the chief guest, promised that he would take the problems raised by locals to the notice of the district administration and see that they were addressed. “I will see that Nagaram will be listed as Smart Village by Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu,” he said.
Amalapuram MP P. Ravindra Babu, who inaugurated mobile medical van, said that it was important to treat and monitor blast victims continuously for six more months and asked the GAIL authorities to send one or two 70 per cent burn victims to Hyderabad for plastic surgery or for further treatment.
M.V. Iyer, General Manager, KG Basin, Gail India Limited, said that the top priority of the company was the well being of the people of this region and added that a dedicated team was deployed in Rajahmundry for implementing various initiatives announced by the company.
He said the GAIL undertook corrective action to establish trust and confidence of all the stake holders after the Nagaram incident. Mr Iyer said that GAIL was incurring an expenditure of Rs. 5 crore on development of infrastructure facilities in and around Nagaram including upgrading facilities at the PHC in Nagaram and Razole, replacement of filter beds in Mamidikuduru mandal, construction of boundary walls of government schools and installation of RO plants in 40 villages entailing investments of over Rs. 2.50 crore.
GAIL distributes new clothes, sweets, donates ambulance
