Chhattisgarh government to adopt children of 14 women dead in Bilaspur sterilization tragedy

Bilaspur, Nov 17: The Chhattisgarh Government has decided to adopt the children of the 14 dead women in the sterilization tragedy and has assured that it will take care of their education and health till the age of 18 years. It has also promised to create fixed deposits of RS 2 Lakh for each of the children.

The decision comes after 14 women undergoing government-sponsored sterilization surgeries died under mysterious circumstances last week. A high-level meeting, chaired by Chief Minister Raman Singh at his home, decided on Sunday that each of the children will receive health cards, which will enable him or her to avail medical facilities at Apollo till the age of 18.

Meanwhile, an official of the Food and Drug Controller Administration was suspended for issuing a compliance certificate to the enterprise that supplied the substandard medicine used in the surgeries. This came in the wake of state authorities claiming that the medicines were contaminated with zinc phosphide, which is used as rat poison.

Several raids have been conducted by the state authorities at the manufacturing unit of the company that supplied medicines where rat poison was found. While the company has been banned, the medicines have been sent to Kolkata, Nagpur and Delhi labs for testing. Raids were also conducted in medical shops across the state.