By Alisha Dutta

Copyright thehindu

Navratri celebrations began on a sour note for several residents of north and north-west Delhi with nearly 400 people from these areas admitted to Babu Jagjivan Ram Memorial (BJRM) Hospital after consuming adulterated kuttu ka atta (buckwheat flour) on Monday.

The incident sparked allegations of lack of quality oversight from Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders on Tuesday, but there was no response from the BJP government to the allegations.

Delhi Health Minister Pankaj Kumar Singh said, “Around 370 patients have been admitted to BJRM Hospital. The Department of Food Supplies and Consumer Affairs is probing the matter to find the source.”

Bhisham Singh, Deputy Commissioner of Police (North West), said,“The hospital authorities informed us that patients had symptoms like nausea, weakness, low blood pressure, and some were vomiting multiple times after they had the flour on Monday.” The patients were from Jahangirpuri, Mahendra Park, Samaypur, Bhalswa Dairy, Lal Bagh, and Swaroop Nagar, he added.

People’s ordeal

Vijay Sharma, 43, a resident of Jahangirpuri, toldThe Hinduthat three of his family members, including him, fell ill after consuming the flour which was bought from a local store. “Like every year, my wife, daughter and I broke fast by eating buckwheat flourrotisaround 7 p.m. An hour later, all three of us began to feel sick. I felt my heartbeat rise… my hands and legs felt numb,” Mr. Sharma said, adding that his wife had vomited, and his daughter felt nauseous.

Mamta Devi, 35, another resident of Jahangirpuri, said her blood pressure had drastically dropped at midnight on Monday, while her husband and daughter had been vomiting.

“We did not know why we were feeling sick, so we called our relatives who live in the neighbourhood. They told that they too had been experiencing similar symptoms,” Ms. Devi said, adding that six members of the family went to BJRM Hospital for a check-up, where they were diagnosed as having suffered food poisoning.

Taking cognisance of the incident, Union Minister of Food Processing Industries Chirag Paswan said that the government has a zero-tolerance policy towards food adulteration.“During the Navratri festival,kuttu ka attais consumed widely. I want to assure that the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India will investigate the matter thoroughly,” the Minister said.

AAP trains gun on govt.

AAP MLA Sanjeev Jha, who visited the hospital, said that the patients told him that they had bought the flour from different shops and claimed that this suggests a “much bigger problem”. “They [people] felt a burning sensation in their stomach and many of them developed fever and rushed to the hospital,” Mr. Jha said. “There is a significant amount of adulteration in masala and grains in Delhi as the BJP government is not conducting the required checks. The government is protecting the people doing this adulteration,” he said.

AAP Delhi president Saurabh Bharadwaj alleged that when hundreds of people fell ill, the government was engrossed in playing dandiya.