Police on Tuesday filed an FIR against 19 people of Harivanshpur village in Vaishali district of Bihar for blocking NH-22 for three hours on June 18 in protest against the death of seven children due to suspected Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES). The protesters were also demanding supply of drinking water in the village. Most of the accused, though, have left the village.
Harivanshpur, under the Bhagwanpur police station, is close to Muzaffarpur, where so far 131 children have died due to AES . The village has been reeling under acute water crisis for some time. On June 18, when the villagers came to know that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was to visit the Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital (SKMCH) in Muzaffarpur, they came out on the highway and blocked traffic for three hours. They also shouted slogans against the government.
On June 23 too, the villagers staged a protest when Lok Jan Shakti Party MLA Raj Kumar Sah and party MP from Hajipur (reserved) Pashupati Kumar Paras came to their area. They held the LJP legislator as a hostage for some time. The police had a tough time taking the LJP leaders out of the village.
Sanjay Kumar, officer in charge of the Bhagwanpur police station, told The Hindu over the phone that the villagers blocked the highway for three hours and most of the accused persons have fled the village.
However, the villagers said they did not block the highway and they staged a protest five km away from it over the death of children and lack of drinking water. “Our children died due to AES and most of the villagers now have left their homes to save their children from the deadly disease…but, the administration has filed an FIR against our menfolk who were the sole breadwinners of the families”, a woman told a news channel.
The villagers also said the FIR had been lodged against those from whose families children had died due to suspected AES. The local police, however, expressed ignorance about it. “I’m not aware that four among those against whom FIR has been lodged, have their children died due to AES”, said Mr. Sanjay Kumar.
A villager told a local journalist, “There is an acute shortage of drinking water in the village as all hand-pumps have gone dry. And doctors advise us to give our children drinking water at regular interval to save their life from AES…this is the irony of our life”.
The government, of late, has started sending water tankers to the village.
Most of the children who died in Harivanshpur belong to the extremely backward Mallah (fisherman) community and Dalit Musahar (rat catchers) community. Ganesh Manjhi has lost two sons — 7-year-old and 2-year-old — within 24 hours due to suspected AES.
