Political storm erupts over minors’ deaths

New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) led Delhi government came under severe criticism from Opposition parties over the death of three minor girls owing to starvation and malnutrition in Mandawali on Thursday.

While the Delhi BJP demanded dismissal of the AAP government over the deaths of the three girls, Delhi Congress president Ajay Maken blamed both the Centre and the city government for the “complete failure of the system.”

Meanwhile, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said the deaths due to “poverty and illness” were the “biggest failure of our system.” The city government has announced a compensation of `25,000 to the family of the deceased girls.

The political blame game that ensued after the incident exacerbated as Mr Sisodia launched an attack on the Centre and lieutenant-governor Anil Baijal for opposing the implementation of the AAP government’s doorstep delivery of the ration scheme, which would have provided ration to the grieving family.

He added that he has asked the Directorate of Integrated Child Development Services to submit details of the officials responsible for keeping records of the people living in the area and fix accountability.

The deputy chief minister visited the SDM office in East Delhi on Thursday and met the girls’ mother, whose mental condition is not good.

He directed the planning department of the Delhi government to conduct a complete census of children in the national capital. Criticising the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), which comes under the ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD), Mr Sisodia said that it was formed to help children reeling from hunger and starvation.

The deputy chief minister said it’s a very “shocking incident” and the magisterial inquiry will bring the facts to the fore.

The BJP has also demanded that Delhi government should immediately order a survey in all the areas of national capital to find out if there are more families starving anywhere so that such tragic incidents do not happen again.

Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari and the Lok Sabha member from East Delhi, Maheish Girri, met the mother of the children and offered her interim relief. Mr Maken, along with former Delhi ministers Dr A.K. Walia and Arvinder Singh Lovely visited the family.

Mr Tiwari and Mr Girri demanded that there should be high level inquiry into the treatment of children in the Mohalla clinic, medicines given by the health attendant, and the reason why the attendant did not see whether the children had taken some food or not.

D13