Parents of TN anaganwadi girl seeks compensation

VILLUPURAM: Parents of a five-year-old girl, who suffered an injury on an eye while playing on an anganwadi premises, staged a protest in front of Villupuram collectorate on Monday demanding that authorities take steps to provide her good treatment.
P Magesh, 28, a daily earner, and his wife, Shenbagam, and three children are living at Perumpattu. While his elder son, Shenbagavel, a Class II student in a village primary school, his daughters – Gayathri, 5, and Monisha, 3 -- are studying in a government anganwadi.
On February 13, Gayathri was playing on the angawadi premises when she accidentally fell on a bamboo fence and sustained injuries in her left cornea .
Her parents rushed her to a private hospital in Puducherry where doctors removed a foreign body (bamboo thorn) from her eye during a surgery. The girl was discharged from the hospital. But she requires further treatment. as her parents could not afford the medical expenses.
Magesh told TOI that though anganwadi workers and social welfare department officials should take responsibility for the accident and make appropriate arrangements to provide her good treatment to her, no steps had been taken by them thus far.
“We need the officials to reimburse the money that we spent for treatment.,” he said.
Police personnel deployed at the collectorate pacified Magesh and took him to social welfare department officials.
When TOI contacted, district social welfare officer S K Lalitha said, “As we don’t have any option to reimburse the treatment expense incurred without our knowledge, we have made arrangements to reimburse them with the help of charitable foundations.”