Rights panel seeks reply in congenital blindness cases

PATNA - At a time when the Bihar government is in a dilemma over 28 cases of congenital blindness which have been reported in a span of a few months in Bhojpur district, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has asked the state government to submit a report on this, officials said Tuesday.

The NHRC has issued notice to the state government and has given it four weeks to reply, R.N. Pandey, an official of the health department, said.

“The NHRC had issued a notice early this month to the state government to submit a report on the facts and what action was initiated by the government in this connection,” Pandey said.

Sources in the state health department said that 28 cases of congenital blindness were reported between October 2009 and April this year.

After the issue was raised in parliament last month, the state government approached the New Delhi-based Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to examine the reasons for the cases.

“The government sent a request to the ICMR after a team of doctors from Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) failed to ascertain the reasons behind it,” a health department official told IANS.

The PMCH team rejected the possibility of congenital blindness in newborns due to high arsenic content in water.

Bihar Health Minister Nand Kishore Yadav said the health department had also approached experts in the US.

The cases have been reported from poor families in villages under Bihiya, Sahpur and Barehara blocks, about 60 km from here.