Malkangiri: Congress leader and former MP Pradeep Majhi today gave a 24-hr ultimatum to the State government to disclose details of the 23 children admitted to the district headquarters hospital for treatment of Japanese Encephalitis who allegedly went missing from the hospital.
Majhi said, “Congress will file police complaints against the health minister and secretary and demand their arrest if data about the 23 kids are not given within the deadline.”
Commenting on the issue, Dr Kalyan Sarkar, ADMO of the District HQ hospital, said, “Mostly attendants of child patients take their kid to home during the treatment due to lack of proper awareness. Therefore, I have instructed the hospital staff to tell people coming from villages for treatment to inform us while leaving the hospital. If possible, we will arrange vehicles for them to reach home.”
Meanwhile, the district administration is providing cooked food to encephalitis patients and kids as well as their mother in Korakonda and Kalimela blocks. Besides, mosquito net is being provided to villagers free of cost and pigs have been relocated to places away from the residential areas.
Mukunda Kabasi, a local, said, “At present no pig is kept in our village as we have shifted the animals to a place two km away from here.”
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Nandu Patnaik, a VLW of Potrel, said, “Cleanliness drive is being undertaken in the area with deslitting of drains, bush cutting and repair of tubewell platform.”
Notably, 44 kids have died of Japanese Encephalitis in the district in past 32 days.