Rajouri/Jammu: An independent MLA supporting the National Conference-led government in Jammu and Kashmir blamed the dual power system for the mysterious death of 17 persons, including 13 children, in a remote village in the Rajouri district.
Former judge Muzaffar Iqbal Khan, who won the Assembly election from the Thanamandi constituency as an independent candidate after being denied a ticket by his party the National Conference (NC) following an agreement with its coalition partner Congress, urged for immediate restoration of statehood to end the ‘dual power’ system in the Union Territory.
Khan, along with NC leader and MLA Budhal Javaid Iqbal Choudhary and Congress MLA from Rajouri Iftkhar Ahmad, threatened to resign to protest “mishandling of the situation” in the Badhaal village, where 17 persons belonging to three families died due to mysterious illness between December 7 and January 19.
“The press conference was held to express our disappointment and displeasure about this dual system, which is working here in Jammu and Kashmir and has to be stopped somewhere. It is telling upon not only the health, but also on the psyche of the people who voted en masse, elected their representative and are now getting disappointed,” Khan told PTI in Rajouri.
Asserting that it is not in the national interest to run the dual power system in Jammu and Kashmir, he said the Omar Abdullah government must be given full powers, otherwise there will be no end to such types of problems.
“We want to send a message to the Union government, which has promised restoration of statehood to J&K in and outside Parliament. The prime minister is on record as having assured restoration of statehood,” he said.
Quoting his conversations with the Budhal MLA, he alleged certain officers mishandled the situation with regard to the treatment of the patients but “you cannot fix the responsibility because you do not have a single control.
“Certain officers are controlled by one authority and others by other authorities. In this type of system, it is the general public who is suffering,” he said.
Fear psychosis has gripped the population due to the mysterious deaths, he said, hoping that the mystery is resolved soon.
Choudhary said there is an urgent need to address the loopholes in the system so that the people get some relief.
“The GMC Rajouri is facing a shortage of 62 percent staff, including doctors and paramedics. It has no MRI facility even as it is meant to cater to more than 14 lakh population,” the MLA said.
He alleged the air ambulance could not be arranged on time for the patients due to the dual power system, leading to so many deaths.
“I knocked the door of all to ensure the best treatment for the patients but this bureaucratic setup proved the biggest hurdle as nobody listened to us,” he said, claiming that an “anarchist situation” is presently prevailing in J&K and there is an immediate need to restore centralized power.
Meanwhile, GMC Rajouri Principal Amarjeet Singh Bhatia said there are 11 patients in the hospital, of which nine are in observation and two in ICU wards.
“All the nine patients are recovering and responding to the treatment and the two patients admitted in ICU are also hemodynamically stable. The last patient admitted on Thursday was an 11-year-old girl and in the past 48 hours, we have not received any new patients,” he said.
NHRC admits petition on mysterious deaths in Rajouri
The NHRC has admitted a petition filed by a Jammu-based RTI activist over the mysterious deaths of 17 people from three Scheduled Tribe families in a remote village in Rajouri district during the past one-and-a-half months.
In his petition to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Raman Sharma sought the statutory body’s intervention to ensure “justice, relief and proactive measures to safeguard the rights and dignity of citizens in vulnerable areas”.
Seventeen people, including 13 children, died under mysterious circumstances in Badhaal village between December 7 and January 19. The patients complained of fever, pain, intense sweating, nausea and loss of consciousness before dying within days of their admission to hospitals.
Investigations and samples collected empirically indicated the incidents were not due to a communicable disease of bacterial or viral origin and that there was no public health angle, prompting police to set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) after certain neurotoxins were found in the samples of the deceased.
A central inter-ministerial team has also joined the multi-agency probe to unravel the mystery behind the deaths.
“The families and community of Badhaal village urgently need support… The commission (NHRC) will take appropriate steps to ensure justice, relief, and proactive measures to safeguard the rights and dignity of citizens in vulnerable areas,” the RTI activist said in his petition on Thursday.
He also requested the NHRC to depute a team to Rajouri to interact with the victim families and gather firsthand information.
The NHRC has admitted the petition and allotted the case diary number to the petitioner.
Sharma demanded in the petition immediate financial compensation, medical and psychological support for the families affected, highlighting their poor background.
He pleaded for urgency of the NHRC’s involvement to expedite the investigation and ensure transparency and accountability.
He has also urged the NHRC to recommend preventive measures to avoid such tragedies in the future, including regular testing of water sources, awareness campaigns on chemical safety, and improved healthcare infrastructure in rural areas.
