Cough-syrup deaths: Congress demands judicial probe, compensation for deceased's families

New Delhi, Oct 7 (PTI) In the wake of reported deaths of children in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan allegedly due to the consumption of a cough syrup, the Congress on Tuesday demanded a judicial probe into the matter, strict action against those responsible and compensation for the families of the deceased.

The opposition party also accused the governments in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan of giving a "clean chit" to the companies that had manufactured the cough syrup that was allegedly responsible for the deaths of the children. It also sought an apology from Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the issue.

At a joint press briefing here with Congress Legislature Party leader in the Rajasthan Assembly Tika Ram Jully, the party's legislature party leader in Madhya Pradesh, Umang Singhar, claimed that 16 children have died in Chhindwara and that the local Congress MLA had warned the government several times, but no action was taken.

"When the matter escalated, the body of a girl child was exhumed from the grave and a postmortem conducted. Children kept dying in the state and the chief minister kept roaming in Assam's Kaziranga National Park," Singhar alleged.

"The deputy chief minister of Madhya Pradesh (Rajendra Shukla) says no death has occurred due to cough syrup and he kept giving a clean chit to the company that makes the cough syrup. After all, what kind of an insensitive government is this? What is the link of the deputy chief minister with the medicine company?" he asked.

Tests are conducted even for minor illnesses but no tests were ever conducted while children's kidneys were failing in Madhya Pradesh, the Congress leader said.

"The pharmaceutical company chose a tribal area like Parasia. It knew that Dalits, tribals and poor people live there, and their voices could be suppressed. If such companies are doing business in small districts in collaboration with the government, are ministers taking a share from these companies?" he asked.

Singhar alleged that both Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh have "puppet" chief ministers.

"These people cannot take decisions and decisions come directly from Delhi. We want to know, there are about 25,000 children in Parasia, so has the government launched any campaign to identify who all have been affected? The BJP government is giving only Rs 4 lakh as compensation to the families of the deceased. Is the price of a mother's empty lap just Rs 4 lakh?" he asked.

Is there any humanity left in the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh, Singhar asked.

He demanded a judicial inquiry into the cases of the children's deaths and a government job for a member of each of the affected families.

"The families of the deceased children should receive compensation equal to the amount spent on their treatment. There should be no politics in this," Singhar said.

Jully said while the prime minister claims that he has been serving the country for 25 years in different positions, all this is happening under his regime. He "should apologise to the country" over this issue, the Congress leader said.

"In Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, several children have died after consuming a cough syrup and many children are seriously ill. Despite this, the BJP government in Rajasthan is not ready to accept that the children's deaths were caused by consuming cough syrup," Jully said.

"My question to the Rajasthan government is, what is the compulsion to procure drug supplies from those pharmaceutical companies that are blacklisted and notorious?" he said.

Several states have ramped up actions to halt the consumption and supply of the Coldrif cough syrup following 14 deaths of children linked to the medicine in Madhya Pradesh, where the government has suspended three officials and transferred the drug controller. PTI ASK/SKC RC