United Democratic Front (UDF) convener M.M. Hasan has demanded that the Government officials responsible for the recent infant deaths in Attappady should be booked.

Four infants and an expectant mother had died in successive days owing to malnutrition in Attappady. Mr. Hasan said the CPI(M) was politicising all areas. “We saw this in Attappady and Aluva. It is the CPI(M) that creates a hurdle for the development of the tribespeople in Attappady,” he said, after the finale of Jan Jagaran Abhiyan rally here on Sunday.

“Five lives were lost in Attappady in four days. Crores of rupees were spent for Attappady from the coffers of the State and Centre. Yet, there has been no change,” he said. Mr. Hasan said Minister for Welfare of SC, ST and Backward Communities K. Radhakrishnan, during his visit to Attappady on Saturday, said the complaints he heard in Attappady had not changed from those raised 10 years ago. “ It has been seven years since the community kitchen introduced for tribespeople stopped functioning. Yet there is no move to reintroduce it,” he said.

According to Mr. Hasan, 11 children had died in Attappady in the current year alone. “The LDF Government was in power in the State when all those deaths took place.” The Congress leader demanded that experts should be appointed at the Government Tribal Specialty Hospital, Kottathara. He said the Attappady issue would be raised at a UDF meeting on Monday.