Miscellaneous - This Day That Age   

dated March 15, 1956: Water supply in capital

Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, Union Health Minister, announced in the Lok Sabha on March 13 that the Union Government had decided to take over responsibility for the supply of pure water to the capital. She was replying to the criticism of the members in the course of the debate on the report of the committee that enquired into the outbreak of jaundice epidemic in Delhi recently. The Health Minister apologised to the Lok Sabha for the outbreak of epidemic and pleaded with the members to realise that the contamination of water supply in the city last November was due to "circumstances beyond our control." The Defence Minister, Dr. K.N. Katju, took part in the two-hour discussion on the subject to refute charges made in the House that the Army failed to respond to the request made by the civil authorities for timely help. Mr. Mohanlal Saksena, former Minister for Rehabilitation, disputed the official figures about the extent of the epidemic. The number of people who suffered from jaundice, he said, was not 7,000 as stated by the officials but 40,000. Mr. H.V. Kamath advised the Minister to resign when she said that she had "tried and tried and tried" for a single authority to deal with the civic and other problems of Delhi and that if she had not succeeded, "it is not for want of trying."

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