Congress seeks Rs. 5 lakh relief to parents of two children who died after vaccination

Gandhinagar, DeshGujarat, 13 November 2014

Congress leader Shaktisinh Gohil today demanded Rs. 5 lakh assistance to kin of two children who died after participating vaccination camp organized by Gujarat government’s Health department.

Gohil said two children Nitin and Nikul were given polio and other vaccines, after which they started crying constantly and suffered fever. When their mother went to vaccination camp to inform doctors about this, she didn’t get any response.

Gohil said children’s father Bhikhabhai Kanabhai Koli is a common laborer fro Dharai village of Chotila taluka of Surendranagar district.

Gohil said, the local authority refused post-Morten of both children at local facility, and therefore both were taken to Rajkot.

Gohil said he tried to contact Surendranagar district collector on this issue, but Collector office responded that he was busy with a programme of minister. Later when he could connect to Collector, he found that Collector was unaware of the incident.

He said the recent CAG report has revealed that the state government has not been able to ensure toilet facility in over 5,000 anganwadi schools in Gujarat, and 82% schools in tribal areas have no toilet facility. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan grant has been spent elsewhere. Nirmal Gram Puraskar scheme’s 6 crore amount has been spent elsewhere. Sankheda and Dabhoi are facing cholera epidemic due to impure drinking water supply. Gujarat Congress president Modhwadia and former president Siddharth Patel paid visit to cholera affected areas.

Editor’s note: Shaktisinh is jumping on conclusions without thorough check or waiting for report. Both kids were given Polio and BCG vaccines. Health department is waiting for post-mortem report to get clarity on reason of their deaths. Health department says that about dozen children were given vaccines and only two are dead. If there was any problem with vaccines, all could have suffered problem. Parents of victims admit that both kids one and half month old(twins) were already weak and unwell. They say kids could have suffered overdose of vaccine. About Sankheda, the problem was due to impure water at local water tank. District Collector and prabhari Jaydrathsinh today camped in Sankheda. Super chlorinated water is being supplied to citizens of Sankheda. Medicines, vehicles and door-to-door medical help are delievered at present. RO water supply through tanker is also one option, the state government is ready to explore.