The incident took place around noon, when the anganwadi workers served milk to the children as part of the daily meal.
Two children died and eight fell sick at a village of Chhattisgarh today, after consuming the milk served at the local anganwadi. Chief Minister Dr Raman Singh has ordered the district collector to conduct a probe and the report is expected within a week.
The incident took place around noon, when the anganwadi workers served milk to the children as part of the daily meal. After consuming it, two children died on the spot and another eight complained of stomach ache and vomiting.
They were immediately taken to the Bijapur district hospital and are now said to be out of danger.
The Chief Minister has announced an ex gratia of Rs 1 lakh each for the families of the deceased children. He has also rushed state tribal minister Kedar Kashyap and Women and Child Welfare Minister Rumshiela Sahu to the village.
The police have sent samples of the milk served for testing. Milk samples have also been collected from all anganwadi centres across the state for testing.
The state Congress has launched a scathing attack on the BJP government. Tomorrow, the state unit chief and the party workers are expected to meet the families of the children.
Congress spokesperson Shailesh Nitin Trivedi told the media, "The state government, which is running Amrit Doodh Yojana to eliminate malnutrition in the state, is offering children poison instead.
There is clear corruption in the milk being supplied to the children in anganwaadis, the Congress alleged. "We will protest against this and demand resignation of the Women and Child Welfare Minister. There also should be a through probe into the case and the guilty should be put behind bars."
The milk supplier, Devbhog Milk Cooperation, has denied the charges.
Rasik Parmar, president of Devbhog Milk Cooperation, said. "It is yet to be proved that the children died because of the milk. The milk was from a batch of 10,200 packets, which means thousands of people consumed it and only 2 from a particular area died and the remaining 8 children survived."