Poison shooter
a rs 5 crore plan has been submitted by the government of West Bengal to the Centre in order to fight the high levels of arsenic and fluoride contamination in the groundwater of the state. The project which is yet to be cleared by the Centre, would investigate into the cause and effect of the contamination and also urge the State Water Investigation Directorate (swid) to launch an awareness campaign in the affected areas. The project has already formulated an agenda for carrying out hydro-geological investigation in the confined and the semi-confined aquifiers in quest of safe water. Top swid officials, reportedly, said that already 900 people have become permanently disabled as they had fallen victims to fluoride contamination in Birbhum district.A recent study conducted by swid detected fluoride contamination in Bankura, Birbhum, Purulia and western Burdwan. The state minister for water investigation and development, Nandagopal Bhattacharya said, "We have plans to provide affected districts with specialised teams to treat the victims."