Chattisgarh health minister must be booked for deaths due to negligence

Aam Aadmi Party demands registration of a criminal case against Chattisgarh health minister for having caused death of atleast 13 women by negligence, and nearly 150 more are still undergoing treatment.

The party also demands that the state’s Raman Singh government should immediately make the entire inquiry report public on how medicines with contents of rat poison were supplied to the medical camps at Bilaspur, and given to the victims.

AAP team led by party’s chief spokesperson Yogendra Yadav and colleagues from the state unit in their on-the-spot assessment has found that the state government acted with extreme negligence, and poor women were treated like guinea pigs by a negligent health regime in the state.

It is extremely surprising that the BJP leadership has allowed an insensitive individual like Mr Amar Agrawal to continue as health minister even two weeks after the terrible incident, particularly after he has been changing his statements to falsely shift blame on the doctors.

The Chattisgarh health minister is neither repentant nor has he assured that such incidents will not be repeated in future.

The probe report has nailed the lies of the state government, which had initially stated that deaths of women had taken place due to negligence of doctors who conducted the sterilisation surgeries earlier this month.

The state government must also reveal whether it has stopped the supplies from the pharmaceutical company which has claimed the lives of innocent women, and whether the state BJP leadership has any link with this company.

Local residents of Bilaspur have informed the AAP leadership that atleast nine women are on ventilators and are struggling for their lives. It is being apprehended that the number of casualties may go up since the medical relief for those still admitted in hospitals due to botched up sterilisation surgeries is far from adequate.

There are many unanswered questions even after two weeks of the man-made tragedy and till the Rama Singh government wakes up from its slumber and heads are rolled, the scope for improvement and corrective action appears remote.