Four of the six children who died within a week in an NGO-run ashram in Indore in Madhya Pradesh succumbed to cholera, a senior official said on Friday.
Collector Ashish Singh said the management of Shri Yugpurush Dham Bal Ashram, where the deaths took place, delayed in intimating the district administration about the infection in time. "Based on test of water samples from the ashram, we can say cholera was the cause of death of four out of six children. It has been proved that cholera infection spread because of contaminated water at the ashram. Water there is supplied through tankers. The cause of the other two deaths cannot be said for sure," Singh told reporters. There was a water purifier with reverse osmosis technology at the ashram but it needs to be checked if the device was working during the cholera outbreak, Singh added. "If the ashram management had informed the administration about the first case in time, fewer children would have fallen ill. Perhaps, we could have ...