RAIPUR: Chhattisgarh Congress president Deepak Baij accused the BJP government of apathy following the deaths of five children from the particularly vulnerable Baiga tribal community in Kawardha, allegedly due to severe malnutrition and anaemia. Kawardha is the home district and Assembly constituency of Deputy Chief Minister and Home Minister Vijay Sharma.
Baij said a Congress fact-finding delegation, including Adivasi Congress national president Vikrant Bhuria and state tribal wing chief Janak Dhruv, visited Nandani Kuman village in the Rengakhar forest belt and the Bodla Sub-Health Centre on Tuesday.
According to Baij, five children from the Baiga community in Nandani Kuman village had died due to acute malnutrition and anaemia. He said 13 other severely malnourished and anaemic children were being treated at the Bodla health facility, while more than 10 critically ill children remained in the village without medical attention.
"The entire villages across this belt are reeling under severe malnutrition, anaemia, diarrhoea, and malaria," Baij stated.
"It is shameful that in the home district and constituency of the Deputy CM, children belonging to a protected primitive tribe are dying of starvation and malnutrition while government welfare schemes remain confined to papers and glossy advertisements. This is a moment of deep introspection for a tribal Chief Minister in Chhattisgarh," Baij further remarked.
Meanwhile, the BJP rejected the allegations as an attempt to create panic. Party spokesperson Anurag Agrawal said the five reported deaths of Baiga tribal children were believed to have occurred over the past six months, not recently.