The issue of tribals falling ill after eating mango kernels in Odisha’s Kandhamal continues to haunt the Mohan Charan Majhi government.

The Opposition has alleged that people were forced to eat mango kernels because the government had failed to provide rice to the tribals on time under the National Food Security Act (NFSA). The government has denied the allegations.

Compounding the woes of the state government, two tribal women of Kandhamal who were undergoing treatment at the SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack after consuming mango kernel have been diagnosed with hepatitis. They are also suffering from multi-organ failure.

Earlier, two tribal women from Mandipanka village under Darinbadi block in Kandhamal district had died after eating mango kernel. Later, six people were shifted to the MKCG Medical College, Berhampur, for treatment.

As their condition worsened, Tuni Majhi, 30, and Jeeta Majhi, 31, were shifted to the SCB Medical College and Hospital for better treatment. Officials said the consumption of mango kernel had impacted their liver and kidney function leading to the multi-organfailure.

Director of public health Nilakantha Mishra told reporters: “The patients admitted to the SCB Medical College and Hospital consumed mango kernels. The mango kernels were stored for two to three days before being consumed. It turned toxic. The eating of mango kernel led to fungal infections. They are suffering from pulmonary hepatitis, and it’s due to fungal infection. They are suffering from multi-organ failure, Their condition is critical.”

Prof Jayanta Kumar Panda of SCB Medical College and Hospital told The Telegraph: “There is liver and kidney failure of both the patients. They are unconscious.”

Though the state government has ordered a probe into the issue, both the BJD and Congress mounted an attack on the government by stating that the tribals lost their lives as the rice distribution system under the NFSA has collapsed in the state.

However, minister of food supplies and consumer welfare Krushna Chandra Patra maintained that all 69 families of Mandipanka village had received rice under the NFSA. “They have already availed of their rice quota from July to September. They did not lift the October-December quota as the families had enough rice,” the minister said.

Senior Congress leader and former Union minister Srikant Jena said Panda’s claims that the families of the deceased had sufficient food and did not collect their October-December quota was false. “The rice provided in July, meant for July to September, barely lasted for a month. The food for October-December was released on November 2. Why was October’s ration delayed for a month? A one-month delay in food distribution violates the provisions of the NFSA and is a criminal offence,” Jena said.

“Had the food supplies been released on time in October, this incident— and the loss of two precious lives — could have been averted,” Jena added.

He also demanded that 5kg of rice per month per person under the NFSA be increased to 15kg a month.

BJD spokesperson Sanjay Kumar Das Burma said: “The failure of rice distribution under the NFSA exposes the incompetency of the Mohan Majhi government. All need to know why the state government failed to distribute food grain to needy families.”