Fluorosis victim Amshala Swamy dies in Sivannagudem after a severe head injury

NALGONDA: Amshala Swamy, a fluorosis victim, who had fought a long battle against fluoride in Nalgonda district, passed away on Friday night after he met with an accident in Sivannagudem of Marriguda Mandal. Swamy who was travelling on his three-wheeler fell off his bike and died due to a severe head injury.

Swamy, for the last 30 years fought uncompromisingly against the fluoride problem in Munugode of Nalgonda district. Swamy, in his battle, found help from Duscharla Satyanarayana, a staffer in Andhra Bank and later in Union Bank of India.

Satyanarayana had launched ‘Jala Sadhana Samithi’ while another battle called ‘Fluorosis Vimukthi Porata Samithi’ was launched by Kanchukatla Subhash in the effort to collectively fight against the dreaded diseases afflicting people.

They along with Swamy met numerous leaders, influencers, social activists, Chief Ministers and Prime Ministers. In fact, a crippled Swamy, as a baby, was laid on the office table of the Prime Minister of India, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, in 1966, just with an intent of presenting the sad stale of how the fluorosis was debilitating people of a few districts in then Andhra Pradesh.

After Telangana was formed, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao took it upon himself to eradicate fluoride problem from 967 villages. The KCR Government’s idea of providing protected portable drinking water through pipelines across Telangana came as boon to the people in the fluoride-affected villages.

Incidentally, Swamy had also received financial assistance from Telangana IT Minster K T Rama Rao. During the recent Munugode byelections, KTR had also made a surprise visit to the house of Swamy in Sivannagudem. An amount of Rs 5.50 lakhs was sanctioned for a double-bedroom house for Swamy by the state government.