The MLA representing Budhal, where a mystery illness has killed 17 people and left many seriously ill, on Thursday accused the Centre of indifference and appeared to hint that this was because the area was Muslim-dominated.

“If this had happened in Jammu, Kathua, Samba or Udhampur, the Prime Minister or (Union) home minister would have visited personally and air ambulances would have been waiting (to fly patients to outside hospitals). There should be no injustice to the people of Rajouri and Poonch,” Javaid Iqbal Choudhary of the ruling National Conference, elected from Budhal Assembly seat, said at a news conference.”

Rajouri — where Budhal falls — and Poonch are Muslim-majority districts in the Jammu region while Jammu proper, Udhampur, Samba and Kathua are Hindu-majority districts.

“We too should be treated as humans, citizens of India. The disease should be handled with all sensitivity,” the MLA said.

Choudhary aired two specific grievances. One, the denial of his request to the lieutenant governor’s (LG) administration for an air ambulance so that a patient could be flown to PGI Chandigarh; and two, the administration’s tardiness in sending patients’ test samples to outside laboratories.

The MLA said the dual power structure in Jammu and Kashmir was part of the problem, implying that key issues like providing air ambulances remained in the hands of the LG’s administration rather than chief minister Omar Abdullah’s elected government.

He said he had spoken to Union minister Jitendra Singh and Omar and dropped a message at the LG’s office on Wednesday seeking an air ambulance for a deteriorating patient, Khalida, but in vain.

“The dual power system is playing with our lives. The public should wake up and end the dual system,” Chaudhary said.

Union home minister Amit Shah had on Sunday ordered the formation of an inter-ministerial team to identify the cause of the disease and the deaths. Medical experts are camping in the area.

Choudhary thanked Shah but said the work should move beyond “collecting samples, photo-ops and press conferences”.

He said many samples collected by the experts were still lying at a Rajouri hospital.

“They (the samples) should be airlifted. If they are taken by road to (labs in) Lucknow, Poona or Delhi, it will take six days and by then there will be (a worse) emergency,” he said.

Choudhary also criticised the Government Medical College (GMC), Jammu, principal for not allowing Khalida to be taken to PGI Chandigarh by road (after the failure to arrange for an air ambulance). He blamed the principal’s “ego”.

There had been no reaction from the administration or the GMC principal to the MLA’s comments by late evening.

Quarantine

On Thursday, the authorities shifted over 200 residents of Budhal village, who had come in contact with the patients, to quarantine centres in Rajouri in a Covid-like containment effort.

While the undiagnosed disease has killed 17 people — mostly children — in the village over the past two months, several others too have fallen ill.

Worries have mounted after five fresh cases surfaced in the last three days. One of them is a girl who lives 5km from Budhal village, Choudhary emphasised, explaining how the “situation has worsened”.

He said cadmium and another toxin, both of which attack the central nervous system, had been found in the samples of the patients. He appealed to residents to avoid local bread, vegetables, water and milk.

While the government says the disease is not an infection, it has established containment zones restricting movement to and from Budhal village. The homes of the patients have been sealed.