Toxic food served at anganwadi centre
11 children, 3 women in Faridkot village ill, are taken to hospital
FARIDKOT: Three women and 11 children of Niaminwala village in the Kotkapura block were on Wednesday admitted to Guru Gobind Singh Medical Hospital after consuming toxic food at an anganwadi centre.
“The condition of two children is critical,” said Dr Pankaj, on duty at the hospital. “The rest are out of danger. All the affected people belong to underprivileged families.”
The government-sponsored child and mother care centre in the village is run under a trained anganwadi health worker, whose job is to give food, clean water, and a cozy learning environment to undernourished children of the poor families and expectant mothers.
The children and women had eaten panjiri (a sweet snack made from whole-wheat flour fried in sugar and ghee) at the village centre as a part of midday meal supplied by Milkfed, said child development project officer Amarjit Kaur, who is hired on contact. “We have no complaint from other centers of the block where the same stock of panjiri was supplied.”
Produced in January, the Milkfed panjiri can be consumed till the end of March. The condition of all patients was under control, additional deputy com- missioner Mohan Lal claimed.
The health department has sealed the unconsumed food stock of the centre. Deputy commissioner Ravi Bhagat has asked the civil surgeon to collect a sample of the panjiri for verifying its toxicity. “Anyone guilty will be dealt with sternly,” he said.