Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal on Tuesday said that the state government will tackle the problem of uranium in groundwater on top priority and had already sought technical input from Mumbai-based Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) to tackle this Punjab-specific problem. Sukhbir,who was in Sangrur to attend the bhog ceremony of Kartar Singh Dhindsa brother of Rajya Sabha member and senior SAD leader Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa said: The chief minister has already requested Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to allocate a special budget to tackle the problem of uranium. The BARC team is trying to locate the source of uranium contamination and the Punjab government was taking all possible measures to provide RO system in the affected areas. On July 6,Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh had said that Punjab is the first,and so far the only state,to report presence of uranium in rural drinking water with almost 70 per cent samples sent to BARC from various districts testing positive for the presence of the radioactive material. However,this was not the first time when the government was informed of the presence of uranium in water. A few years ago,Faridkot-based NGO Baba Farid Centre for Special Children had come up with surveys showing the presence of uranium in the hair of children who had coming to it for treatment. The NGO had conducted a study on 149 children who had come to its centre from Punjab,Haryana and Rajasthan. Among the 149,while 116 were below 12 years of age,33 were 13 and above most of the patients were from Punjab. In the first part of the study in 2008,hair samples were tested. The results showed that over 80 per cent of children,many of whom were suffering from cerebral palsy and mental retardation,showed higher presence of uranium in their bodies. The next year,urine samples of the 149 children and water samples from the area were tested. As many as 114 children were found to be suffering from various disabilities. The tests were done at Trace Minerals a laboratory in Germany. The laboratory examined barium,cadmium,manganese,lead and uranium levels in the hair and urine of these children. The results showed that all children were suffering from past and immediate exposure to one or more metals. While hair mineral test results showed toxic metal exposure for each children,88 per cent of them exceeded the uranium reference range for hair,indicating past and chronic exposure.
