Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
The use of a blacklisted drug to treat five pregnant women, followed by the death of one and the others battling for life, is in the eye of a fresh political storm in West Bengal. The Trinamool Congress (TMC) government has ordered a probe by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) into the fiasco that the Opposition is decrying as administrative negligence.
Suvendu Adhikari, the BJP’s Nandigram MLA and leader of the Opposition in the legislative assembly, has demanded that chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who also holds the health portfolio, and health department secretary Narayan Swaroop Nigam be booked and arrested.
On January 7, five women admitted at the Medinipur Medical College and Hospital were intravenously administered Ringer’s Lactate (RL) from allegedly expired stock. The stock was manufactured by Paschim Banga Pharmaceutical, a company banned by the Drug Controller General of India following similar maternal deaths in Karnataka.
The Bengal government set up a 13-member team to probe the matter and the health department issued a memo to all chief medical officers in districts and principals of all medical colleges to stop the use of RL. In a separate notice, the department said no surgical or anaesthetic procedure should be conducted by postgraduate medicos without the supervision of seniors.
The Mamata government suspended 12 doctors of the Medinipur hospital for lapses in duty. Those suspended include the medical superintendent cum vice-principal of the institution, the resident medical officer, an assistant professor, a head of the department, and six postgraduate trainee doctors. The government announced Rs 5 lakh as compensation and a job for the family of the deceased woman.
“The chief secretary and the health secretary have submitted two investigation reports. As per their suggestion, we are suspending 12 doctors. The CID will investigate the criminal cases,” said Mamata at a news conference on January 16.
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In a counter-reaction to these measures, doctors, supported by various bodies, are gearing up for a protest. Doctors’ associations in Bengal have previously criticised the authorities for trying to shift the blame on them in such cases, calling it a tactic to distract attention from pressing issues on the ground.
Adhikari and the BJP too accused the government of trying to push the blame on doctors. “Mr Manoj Pant (chief secretary of Bengal), it seems that under the instructions of health minister Mamata Banerjee, you and health secretary Narayan Swaroop Nigam are orchestrating to shift the entire blame of the Medinipur Medical College mishap to the obstetrics and gynaecology unit of the said hospital,” Adhikari posted on X on January 13. “Also, your plan is to throw the junior and trainee doctors under the bus. The utterance of the word ‘NEGLIGENCE’ for n number of times during your press briefing suggests so.”
“What were you doing from December 13, 2024 when the Karnataka health department alerted you after four death cases related to the poisonous saline in their state? It’s your health secretary and health minister who are at fault. It’s negligence on their part. They should be arrested by your CID and dragged to Bhabani Bhawan, with noose tightened around their waists,” he wrote.
Adhikari, speaking to INDIA TODAY, alleged that one of the three directors of Paschim Banga Pharmaceutical had close links to Kalighat, a south Kolkata neighbourhood where Mamata resides. The company is owned by Farista Vanijya Pvt Ltd, which has directors Kailash Kumar Mitruka, Mukul Ghosh and Niraj Mittal. Among them, Ghosh has ties with the TMC, Adhikari claimed. “He (Ghosh) acts as the bridge between Kalighat and the company,” Adhikari said.
On January 14, Shankar Ghosh, chief whip of the BJP in the legislative assembly, filed an FIR with the Siliguri police station seeking a probe into the matter and requesting action against the Medinipur Medical College authorities and Paschim Banga Pharmaceutical, which is headquartered in Siliguri with its factory in Chopra in North Dinajpur.
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SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
