Balasore: An Anganwadi worker was critically injured after being assaulted by villagers for allegedly not serving eggs to the children in the mid-day meal (MDM) in Odisha’s Balasore district.
According to sources, the victim, Urmila Samal works in the Anganwadi centre at Mahapada village under Singla police station of the district. She was in charge of preparing MDM and serving the food to the children coming to the centre.
In order to improve the nutrition of the children, the state government has made it mandatory to serve eggs to them in the MDM. A video that was released on social media showed that eggs were not given to the children at Mahapada Anganwadi centre.
After the video went viral, the villagers came to know about alleged negligence of Urmila and a group of agitated women went to the Anganwadi centre on the day. They hurled abuses at Urmila and dragged her out of the centre. They tied her to a tree and beat her up mercilessly. While she was crying for help, one of the women made a video shooting of the incident in her mobile phone camera.
On being informed about the incident, Baliapal CDPO Parbati Murmu and some Anganwadi workers rushed to the spot. They pacified the agitated women and released Urmial.
The police rushed the Anganwadi worker to community health centre (CHC) at Basta. Later, she was shifted to the district headquarters hospital at Balasore as her condition deteriorated.
A complaint has been filed at Singla police station. The police have registered a case but have not made any arrest so far, the sources said.