Presentation made on AES socio-economic survey before Nitish Kumar

A presentation was made on Wednesday before Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on the social and economic survey of Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) affected families of the state.

AES had claimed the lives of more than 150 children in the state, especially in Muzaffarpur which alone witnessed more than 130 deaths in its two hospitals.

The state government had ordered a socio-economic survey to ascertain the condition of the victims' families when the children's deaths were reported first in June.

It was conducted on 538 affected families in five blocks of Muzaffarpur district apart from other AES affected districts, an official release said quoting Jeevika's Chief Executive Officer Bala Murugan D.

The CEO said that an action plan has been proposed for the five worst affected blocks of Muzaffarpur.

All the children below the age of five years would be enrolled at anganwadi centres within three months besides ensuring availability of ration cards for all the affected families, the release said.

On the basis of information from the survey, the families of all five blocks will be given the benefit of Mukhya Mantri Awas Yojana if they are not eligible to get the benefit of Pradhan Mantri Gramin Awas Yojana.

Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, Health Minister Mangal Pandey, Rural Development Minister Shravan Kumar, Social Welfare Minister Ram Sewak Singh, Food and Consumer Protection Minister Madan Sahni were present during the meeting, besides top officials including Chief Secretary Deepak Kumar.