Madhya Pradesh Congress Chief Jitu Patwari, calling the arrest of a government doctor in the connection with the death of the 16 children administered the now-banned ‘Coldrif’ cough syrup an eyewash, said the bereaved families would get justice only when Chief Minister Dr Mohan Yadav dismisses the Health Minister Rajendra Shukla, the principal secretary of the Health Department, the state health commissioner, and the state’s drug controller.
Patwari visited Parasia in the Chhindwara district to meet the families of the deceased children. CM Dr Mohan Yadav cancelled his scheduled programs on Monday to visit Parasia.
“The chief minister is coming today to Parasia merely to clean the government’s face blackened by the tragedy and not to sympathise with those families whose kids have died,” Patwari said.
“If the CM really sympathises with the families of the deceased children, he should have already dismissed the health minister before coming to Parasia,” he contended.
The MP Congress chief argued that mere arrest and suspension of a government doctor in the case is not enough. “A doctor is not a laboratory. He prescribed the medicine only on the basis of the contents shown on it. Doctors in the entire state have given that syrup and therefore, on the basis of this logic, all of them should have been terminated,” he reasoned.
“The chief minister should order the dismissal of the state health minister, drug controller, principal secretary and commissioner of the health department, and not just a doctor. It is eyewash and an attempt to save the minister,” he said.
He pointed out that health minister and Deputy Chief Minister Rajendra Shukla had earlier claimed that there was no such content in the Coldrif cough syrup that resulted in the death of the kids. But the Tamil Nadu government’s report clearly proved the MP Health Minister wrong, and verified that Coldrif contains 48.6 percent toxic Diethylene Glycol (DEG), which is extremely hazardous to health, particularly in kids.
Meanwhile, the Madhya Pradesh Police have formed a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the death of 14 children in Chhindwara due to suspected renal failure, linked to the consumption of the toxic cough syrup.
A government doctor, Praveen Soni from Chhindwara, has been arrested, and subsequently suspended by the Health Department for alleged negligence in connection with the deaths, while a case has been registered against the Coldrif cough syrup manufacturing company, M/s Sresan Pharmaceuticals of Kancheepuram in Tamil Nadu.
The body of the last victim was exhumed on Sunday for a post-mortem, which was not initially done after the child’s death.