JAGATSINGHPUR: At least 30 more persons, who had taken ill after consuming stale ‘Dahi Bara’, were admitted to the District Headquarters Hospital (DHH) on Wednesday. With this, the number of patients being admitted to the hospital for food poison due to consumption of stale ‘Dahi Bara’ rose to 80. On Tuesday, at least 200 villagers of Gopalpur, Putting, Jaisinghpur and Ainipur under Raghunathpur and Tirtol blocks had consumed ‘Dahi Bara’ from a cycle vendor, who sells the food item by moving from one village to another. After a few hours, the villagers complained of vomiting, stomach ache and diarrhoea. Some of them were rushed to Sanra Primary Health Centre and later 50 persons had to be shifted to the DHH. Medical teams of the DHH were also rushed to all the four villages to provide treatment to the other affected persons.
Sources said there are not enough beds in the DHH to accommodate all the patients as a result of which, they are forced to sleep on the floor. On the other hand, a squad from the Health department led by Food Safety Officer Amitav Das raided different food kiosks selling ‘Dahi Bara, Aloo Dum’ and ‘gupchup’ in Jagatsinghpur Raghunathpur and Tirtol and stopped the sales. Similar raids were conducted at Gandhi Chowk, Bada Bazaar and Sana Bazaar in Jagatsinghpur town. Vendors were asked to stop selling the food items for 15 days. Samples of the food items were collected and would be sent to the State Laboratory in Bhubaneswar for tests. Till now, unhygienic and stale food were being sold in many parts of the district in the absence of any monitoring by civic body and local administration.
Das said as raids are not being conducted regularly on roadside eateries and other food vendors, sale of unhygienic food is on the rise. Das added that the municipality does not have enough staff to conduct raids. He has sought the intervention of District Food Safety Committee to stop sale of ‘Dahi Bara’ and ‘gupchup’ in different parts of the district for the time being.
Collector Bijay Ketan Upadhaya visited the patients in the DHH and interacted with the health officials. He assured financial assistance to the patients for treatment and purchase of medicines. Meanwhile, Tirtol police on Wednesday detained the ‘Dahi Bara’ seller Gopal Nayak, who hails from Barunpada under Tirtol police limits. He had sold the food item in the four villages on Tuesday.