Jajpur/Kaliapani: A Central team visited the hilltop village of Nagada and took stock of development initiatives undertaken by the state government.
The visit assumes significance after 18 tribal kids died of alleged malnutrition and other ailments in the village a month back. The team after its arrival Monday conducted a review meeting with the district collector and senior officials of the district administration where the latter made a presentation of various schemes being implemented in the village. However, the team members reportedly flagged some discrepancies between the district administration’s report and actual implementation of various developmental schemes in the village.
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The team led by joint secretary Chetan B Sanghvi of the Union health ministry and comprising additional director Awadhesh Kumar, Kalabati Saran, Dr Pravin Kumar, deputy WCD commissioner Sheela Dev and adviser Arun Singh of Rashtriya Bal Vikash Karyakram trekked for 6.5 km through mountainous terrain to reach the village and conducted a fact-finding on the children’s death.
Nagada taskforce committee chairperson Vishal Dev, director D Parasant Reddy of women and child welfare department, collector Satya Kumar Mallick, PD Braja Gopal Acharya and sub-collector Maheswar Panigrahi accompanied the team during their visit and explained various developmental initiatives being implemented in the village. The team members visited the Anaganwadi centre on the hill, the nearest hospital and the nutrition rehabilitation centre.
Later, Sheela Dev and Awadhesh Kumar visited the Ashokjhar village on the foothill and enquired about the health conditions of the pregnant women and children. They are learnt to have identified certain irregularities in distribution of food to the pregnant women by the Anganwadi centre and visited Deogaon village where they met Juang tribals and primary school students.
The team members also visited a nutrition rehabilitation centre at Tata Steel hospital and enquired about the health condition of three malnourished kids undergoing treatment. Later, they visited the Kuhika primary health centre and NRC in Jajpur.
Meanwhile, four medical teams from Cuttack led by Dr Subhas Chandra Gochhayat visited Nagada village and opened camps for treatment of the villagers. PNN
