HOWRAGHAT, July 17: The Public Health Engineering Department (PHE), Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council (KAAC) in active support of Sum Ronghang, former KAAC CEM and present EM of PHE Department is launching a belligerent drive with the aim to supply potable water for the people of the district. As a part of the drive, Sum Ronghang along with all senior officials comprising Amlan Joyti Bordoloi, additional chief engineer and all executive engineers and sub divisional officers (ADOs) of different division and subdivisions and joint director and senior doctors of Health Department of the district jointly visited the highly fluoride-affected Tekelangjung area yesterday. It is worth mentioning here that the Tekelangjung area was detected as having of excess fluoride in the district. As per Indian Standards acceptable limit of fluoride in consumable water is 1.0 mg per litre while 1.5 mg per litre is the cause for rejection. However, in Tekelangjung area fluoride content in water has been found to be as high as 20 mg to 23 mg per litre. To supply potable water against 13 villages under Tekelanjung, a Greater Tekelangjung Water Supply Scheme has conceived to set up worth Rs 1.42 crore. The water will be collected from the top of the hill stream which is at a distance of 3.2 km from the intake point to Overhead Pressed Still Tank. While interacting with the mediapersons, the KAAC PHE EM, Sum Ronghang asserted that major actions have taken up on fluoride mitigation and to tackle the problem of excess iron in Piped Water Supply Schemes with aeration and filtration. Ronghang further said that altogether 658 habitations have been covered. Among these 48 of slipped back habitation and 16 of iron habitation are to be covered under Comprehensive Action Plan (CAP) this year. On the other hand, 918 under School Water Supply Schemes have installed in large number of educational institutions and 215 under Rural Sanitation, provided to Below Poverty Line ( BPL) families to reduce the probability of diseases. Apart from that, 83 RCC sanitary latrines have been given to the fluoride-affected area. To implement the project, the KAAC has already received an amount of Rs 37 crore, Ronghang added. On the other hand, Dr C Singnar, in-charge, Mobile Medical Unit and Dr Phumen Timung addmited that during the free health checkup most of patients of the Tekelangjung area detected fluoride and malaria affected. Altogether, 75 patients were attended the free health checkup and medicines were also distributed among the patients.