Muzaffarpur encephalitis outbreak : Supreme Court lashes out at government

The Supreme Court asked the Union and state government to file an affidavit in 10 days on adequacy of health services, nutrition, and hygiene. The court stated that these are basic that these are basic rights in response to the public litigation plea.

The Chief Judicial Magistrate's court in Muzaffarpur has also ordered a probe against Union health minister Harsh Vardhan and Bihar health minister Mangal Pandey in the matter on the same day.

Advocates Manohar Pratap and Sanpreet Singh Ajmani submitted the plea in the Supreme Court seeking a direction to set up a team of medical experts for treatment of children suffering from encephalitis immediately.

The PIL stated that the Bihar government should pay a compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the families of the deceased.

So far, 152 children have lost their lives in the outbreak of the Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) in Bihar's Muzaffarpur district.