Collapse of Administration in Chhattisgarh

Collapse of administration in Chhattisgarh

Fourteen women have died after a TT operation in a sterilisation camp organised in village Pendari near Bilaspur, the Dt. HQrs. It is reported that as many as 83 operations were made in three and a half hours on Saturday, November 8, 2014 by one surgeon named Dr R.K.Gupta probably to catch up with target fixed for the year by the higher ups. One more death of a woman from Baiga community, a restricted one constitutionally has been reported from the Community Health Centre, Gorella.

Again about 13 women are reported to be serious out of 65 women admitted for treatment due to these camps. A number of small kids and school going children have become motherless all of a sudden for no fault of theirs. A heartrending scene should be seen to be believed for realising the type of disaster that the rural families are subjected to. Human negligence supplemented by the greedy nature of individuals in our society has led to such a catastrophe. A drastic action like life imprisonment or capital punishment alone can set right things in the days to come.

The minister in charge of Health Department refuses to resign on moral grounds supported by the Chief Minister. Gone are the days when the ministers like Lal Bahadur Shstri stepped down voluntarily on such public disasters. Now we can hardly think of such examples in this century. 

The paradox is that the chief minister Raman Singh was a medical practitioner a few years ago and the Secretary to the Department is also an MBBS degree holder before joining the IAS. They seem unable to rectify the situation that has become really notorious in the recent past with too many deaths on account of eye camps and uterus-removal camps.

Remedy

The Chief minister being a doctor himself should handle the department of health before things turn awkward again in the near future.

The Principal Secretary to Health Dr Alok Shukla should devote half of his time in the Directorate of Health as the Health Commissioner and streamline the working of the department.

It is high time both the advisors (former chief secretaries) to the state government are directed to sit in Dr Ambedkar Hospital and Bilaspur Dt .Hospital and revamp the working of the department by dividing the state into two haves for their supervision and control for at least one year at a stretch.

Dr P.Raghavan,

A former civil servant

+++++++++++++++++