12 tribal children hospitalised due to food poisoning in Chhattisgarh

A dozen children of Pahadi Korba community have fallen ill due to food poisoning in tribal dominated Jashpur district, officials said on Wednesday. All the children have been admitted to a government hospital and their condition is out of danger, the officials said.

The family members of the children alleged that they fell ill after they ate the ready-to-eat food provided by the local anganwadi centre under the Bagicha Block of the district.

However, the district administration claimed that the food poisoning was caused after they consumed some sweets at a religious ceremony. The matter is under investigation, they added.

“It seems that they consumed sweets in a local ceremony which caused the food poisoning but I have ordered a probe. The sample of ready-to-eat food has been sent for examination on Wednesday,” said Jashpur collector, Ritesh Agarwal.

“The ready-to-eat food is given in all 176 villages of the district but there was no similar complaint about it. Some kids who were ill have not even eaten the ready-to- eat food hence it seems that there was some other reason behind the food poisoning,” said Vinod Singh, chief executive officer (CEO), Zila Panchayat.

Singh further said that on Tuesday evening, the administration got information that the children were suffering from diarrhoea and vomiting. “The village is inside the jungle and around 45 km from the headquarters. I along with local sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) and other officials rushed to the spot and admitted the kids to a health centre in Bagicha,” said Singh.

On Tuesday, an eight-year-old girl died and 20 others fell ill allegedly after eating ‘panipuri’ at a village market in Bilaspur district.