150 fall ill in Tripura after eating 'prasad'

At least 150 people, including children and women, were taken ill after they ate 'prasad' at a tribal puja here Sunday night and 75 of them were admitted to hospitals, officials said. Their condition is now stable.

"In all, 150 people, including women and children, were taken ill. Of them, 75 people have been admitted to the two government hospitals in Udaipur of Gomti district in south Tripura Sunday night," a health department spokesman told reporters Monday.

The 'prasad' (an offering to a deity) was distributed after the tribals' traditional 'Ker' puja at the tribal-dominted Duptali village, 75 km south of Agartala.

The health department has sent two medical teams to the village.
"The condition of all 150 is now state to be stable," the spokesman said quoting the doctors.

The health department Monday organised two health camps in the village with expert doctors and additional nursing staffs for the ailing people.

State planning board vice-chairman and former minister Keshab Majumder and local Communist Party of India-Marxist legislator Madhab Saha have been supervising the relief efforts.