YEH MERA INDIA

A hospital where doctors have TB

Mumbai : This year’s civic health budget is Rs 2,345 crores but resident medical officers live in such squalor in Sion Hospital that 11 of them have contracted tuberculosis.

Confirming this, dean Dr Suleman Merchant said, “Funds have not been sanctioned to house the resident medical officers (RMOs) properly.’’

 Two of the RMOs, the backbone of civic hospitals, tested positive for multi drug resistant TB, which is lethal. RMOs, however, claim that this could just be the tip of the iceberg as several of them are hesitant to admit that they have contacted this airborne disease because of social stigma.

Health activist Ravi Duggal said this was the result of the BMC’s apathy towards the health sector. “With the middle class opting for private hospitals and the unions of doctors and nurses growing weaker, there is no one to raise concerns about the deteriorating state of public hospitals,’’ he said.

In the old RMO quarters of the hospital, four to five doctors live in a 10’x 10’ room meant for two. There is not enough sunlight in the rooms even at 2 p.m.

Dr Nilkanth Awad, head of pulmonary medicine department in Sion hospital, said overcrowded and unhygienic conditions coupled with long working hours, stress, poor ventilation and irregular eating habits, makes one susceptible to TB, especially since they are exposed to TB patients in the hospital.

RMOs at Sion hospital have been living in such pathetic conditions for three years despite several protests. “Every other month we are given false assurances by the hospital that we will be given better accommodation but the 38 rooms in the new Out Patient Department building are still lying vacant,” said a member of the Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors, requesting anonymity. They are scared of being victimised by the system.

The new OPD building was constructed on the premises of Sion hospital in 2010 but it has not been made operational because BMC has some issue with the contractor.

Resident doctors said they were promised extra rooms in a Vikhroli school building but even this has not materialised because funds were not sanctioned.

Additional municipal commissioner Manisha Mhaiskar, who is in charge of health, dodged the TB issue and said, “We are in the process of providing the top two floors of the new OPD building to resident doctors at the earliest. Along with that, the funds will be sanctioned for the Vikhroli building as well.”

Consumer forum refuses to recall its order against BMC

Mumbai: Rejecting the BMC appeal for recall of the order imposing cost on it, the State Consumer Forum has ruled that the state or district forums are not mandated to recall the order passed by it. Only the National Consumer Forum is empowered to recall the passed order.

The ruling was related to the case in which the State Consumer Forum had imposed a cost of Rs 5,000 on the BMC and directed it to pay the amount to the original complainant Sakharam Ghaste. The BMC did not comply with the order and instead filed an application with the forum for its recall. While dealing with the matter, the state forum said, “Power of recall is not vested with the District Consumer Forum or the State Consumer Commission; it is vested only with the National Commission as per Section 22 of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986. Moreover, there is a judgement of the Supreme Court delivered in the case of Rajeev Hitendra Pathak & Ors v/s Achyut Kashinath Karekar, wherein the apex court had clearly held that the district forum and the state commission have no power of review or to set aside the ex-parte order.”

“In view of the order passed on 27/09/2012, this appeal does not survive for consideration since we passed the order that if cost is not paid within one week, the appeal shall stand automatically dismissed without reference to this bench”.    

Army Hospital & rats in attendance

New Delhi : The feet of a paralysed Special Forces officer was bitten by rats in the Base Hospital here after which the Army has ordered an inquiry into the incident to fix responsibility.

The young Lieutenant belonging to an elite Para (Special Forces) battalion of the force was admitted here in the Army Base Hospital after he was injured in a counter-terrorist operation in Jammu and Kashmir.

The incident came to light when the hospital authorities found the paralysed legs of the officer bleeding due to rat bites, Army sources said. An inquiry has been ordered into the incident and strict action would be taken against whosoever is found to be responsible for the incident, they said.

The sources said the bite wounds of the officers have been dressed and all possible attention is being paid towards his health condition. Army Base Hospital is a referral centre for several trauma-related cases of the Services personnel.

A detailed report is being sought from the Base Hospital also and strict instructions have been given to maintain hygienic conditions there. 

Bonded labour & states' insensitivity

New Delhi: Regardless of the complexion of all state governments, they had drawn together Rs 4.94 crore from the Centre to conduct survey of bonded labourers but not a single state has accomplished the task.

This fact has emerged from the Supreme Court’s judgment that directed all the states and Union territories to conduct a survey on bonded labour and take steps to rehabilitate them.

While disposing of a PIL filed by the PUCL in 1985 seeking directions for rehabilitation of bonded labourers and action against those who keep impoverished poor people in hostage, a bench of Justices KS Radhakrishan and Dipak Misra said all the states should submit their bi-annual reports to the NHRC.

The Centre filed an affidavit in 2011 stating that the ministry of labour and employment provided Rs 494 lakh as assistance for conducting surveys to various states between 2001 and 2010. However, in a majority of the states, no surveys have been conducted after 2002-2003. It was stated that only a handful of states have conducted surveys in subsequent years.

ED attaches assets worth Rs 20 cr in Citibank case

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate has issued orders attaching assets worth about Rs 20 crore in connection with its money laundering probe in the Citibank Gurgaon fraud scam.

The attachment orders, freezing two bank accounts of relatives of main accused in the case Shivraj Puri and two properties of two other of his associates, had been issued by the agency recently, sources privy to the development said.

Several depositors and high-networth individuals (HNIs) were duped in the Rs 460.91-crore alleged fraud engineered by Puri– a Global Wealth Manager of the bank and was working at its Gurgaon branch.

The ED attachment order ensures that the accused are not able to use or derive any benefit out of these properties as they are termed as “proceeds of crime”.

The accused can challenge the order at the Adjudicating Authority of the anti-money laundering law based in the national capital.

The ED had registered a Prevention of Money Laundering (PMLA) offence in this case last year.

The Haryana police had earlier this year filed a charge sheet against the fraud accused and capital market regulator SEBI too probed the matter as the fraud money was invested in the stock market.

As per a SEBI report, Puri had allegedly taken an exposure of Rs 1.13 lakh crore in the equity market using Rs. 236 crore of 51 high networth individuals and corporates and lost everything following decline in stock markets.

The government had earlier said the fraud in the Gurgaon branch of the bank had been going on since September 2009 but major transactions only took place between May 2010 and November 2010.