Malkangiri: Health and education department officials have not learnt any lessons even as more than 400 children have lost their lives over last four months due to Japanese Encephalitis, malnutrition and other infections.
Hundreds of strips of iron and calcium tablets supplied by the state government to improve the health of school students rotted at the office of cluster resources centre coordinator (CRCC), located on the premises of Chalanguda primary school under the Sadar block.
The medicines so piled up are of no use now as their validities have expired, it was learnt. It is obvious that many school students were deprived of the much needed vitamin supplements with such wastage of medicines, headmasters of several schools alleged.
Nearly 16 schools of MV-45, Talpadar, Titibiri, Rengabandh, Dangasakhal, Pahadaguda, Chalanguda, Masaguda, Alur, Kadelguda and Nuaguda villages come under this CRCC. The tablets haven’t been distributed to these schools for several years, the teachers alleged.
When contacted, CRCC Aswini Kumar Majhi said he took charge of the office a few months back. The person whom he succeeded is responsible for the lapse, Majhi added.
According to government norms, the tablets should be distributed among students every month. The teachers entrusted with the job get an allowance of Rs 450 per month. Therefore, it is suspected that wrong bills worth lakhs of rupees were raised to misappropriate the allowance.
A study reveals that more than 6,000 children have died of various diseases due to poor nutrition over last eight years. Both the state government and the Centre launched several schemes to address the children’s mortality rate. However, they serve no purposes as the officials hardly show any concern for the lives of the children, it was learnt.
Manas Kumar Jena, the district project coordinator of Sarva Sikhya Yojana, couldn’t be contacted for this report. PNN