FIR against villagers who protested deaths due to AES

A child showing symptoms of AES being treated at a hospital in Muzaffarpur. File pic

Vaishali: In a heart-wrenching incident, an FIR has been lodged against 39 people in Harivanshpur in Vaishali district on Tuesday after they protested the lack of water supply and death of several children due to Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) in the area.

"Our children died. We did a gherao, but the administration has filed an FIR against us. Men against whom the FIR has been registered have left the village. They were the only breadwinners," said a relative of a person against whom the FIR was registered.

The fear of AES forced villagers in Harivanshpur village to vacate their homes. Most families moved home with their children to other villages after the outbreak of the vector-borne disease.

"My two sons died due to Acute Encephalitis in the matter of an hour. The elder one was 7 years old while the younger one was two years old. There were no awareness campaigns by the administration regarding the disease," a man said. He also criticised Bihar CM Nitish Kumar and said, "The Chief Minister has done nothing to spread awareness regarding the disease. There are no arrangements in the hospital for children suffering from the disease." The death toll due to AES touched 131 in Muzaffarpur district alone on Tuesday, according to the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP).

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