Special food meant for underweight kids supplied by an Anganwadi Centre turned fatal for two sisters in Odisha's Gajapati district, officials said on Monday. The father of the victims and a third sibling are in critical condition at the MKCG Medical College Hospital in Brahmapur.
The incident happened in Tulasi Nagar in Ramgiri village in R Udaygiri block on Sunday where the two kids died of suspected food poisoning.
An ASHA worker, who brought the deceased to the hospital, said they complained of stomach pain and vomited.
The deceased sisters were six and three years of age, news agency PTI reported. While the elder child died on the way to the hospital, the younger succumbed while undergoing treatment, officials were quoted as saying by the news agency.
The bodies of the two children were sent for post-mortem examination to ascertain the exact cause of the death, officials said. Meanwhile, District Collector Bijay Kumar Dash told the press that the same food was served to several families in the village and none experienced any distress
"We have ordered an inquiry into the incident. Though other families in the village had also received the same special sattu, no complaint came from them. The government has made all arrangements for proper treatment of the ill father and daughter," Bijay Kumar Dash told PTI.
The bag of 'sattu', the speical food served from the Anganwadi, was recovered from the house of the deceased and sent for tests, officials said.
Anganwadi workers have been asked not to distribute the 'sattu' till the test results arrive, they said.
