Malkangiri: With the death of two more kids from dreaded Japanese Encephalitis Wednesday in district headquarters hospital here, the number of casualty shot to 32 in the district.
The deceased were identified as Swati Matam , the three-year-old daughter of Krushna Matam of Sindhibeda village under Mathili block and two-year-old Saraswati Kumbhar, daughter of Shukra Kumbhar of Pitagata village. Another girl Rashmita Gouda (2), daughter of Ramsingh Gouda also succumbed while being shifted to the DHH. However, the administration is yet to announce it to be a case of Japanese Encephalitis. Rashmita’s family and villagers said they took the girl the hospital after she developed the symptoms of the killer disease.
At present, 67 children are battling for lives at the DHH, it was learnt.
Meanwhile, congress workers led by Nabarangpur MP Pradip Majhi staged a sit-in at the collectorate seeking `5 lakh as compensation for the kin of the deceased. They also demanded immediate admission of other ailing kids to All India Institute of Medical Sciences.
Though collector K Sudarshan Chakraborty and a medical team urged the agitators to withdraw protests, it yielded no result.
Majhi said the stir would continue till the fulfillment of their demands.
The district administration, however, provided `10, 000 to each of the bereaved families as interim compensation and `2,000 under Harishchandra Yojana. Besides, the homeless families who lost their children would get an Indira Awas Yojana(IAY) house each, it was learnt.
A seven-member BJP team led by Bhrugu Buxipatra is scheduled to visit affected villages of the district to take stock of the situation.
Meanwhile, leave of government employees in the district has been cancelled while the administration continued to distribute bed nets in worst-hit regions to keep mosquitoes at bay, additional district magistrate Raghumani Gamang said.
BSF jawans have also been pressed into service to help fogging operation in the district, a report said. PNN
