Tubectomy deaths: Jha panel visits hospital in Pendari village

BILASPUR: A one-member judicial commission probing the case of botched sterilisation surgeries in Bilaspur district in Chhattisgarh that claimed lives of 13 women and left many others critically ill, today visited the hospital in Pendari village where these procedures were held at the camp organised by the state government on November 8.

Allegations are that the Nemichand Jain Cancer and Research Centre where surgeries were held has been in an abandoned state and unkempt.

The District and Sessions Judge (retired) Anita Jha visited the hospital in Takhatpur block along with Bilaspur Division Commissioner Somani Borah and Collector Siddharth Komal Pardesi and examined it.

While 12 of the 83 women who were operated upon at the camp held in Pendari village on November 8 died after developing complications, a protected Baiga tribe woman, Chaiti Bai was the lone casualty from Pendra block where around 56 women had undergone laproscopic tubectomies at three different camps on November 10.

"As per the government notification on constitution of the judicial panel, it will investigate the case on a number of points of public importance, including whether the standard protocol was followed in these camps, the circumstances leading to the incident, whether medicines used were of standard quality," Jha told reporters in the evening.

She said the probe will fix the accountability and will also discuss measures that can be taken to avoid recurrence of such incidents.

"It's an open investigation so anybody can approach the commission and register his/her statements in this connection under its specific procedure," Jha added.

Chief Minister Raman Singh had announced the judicial probe following an uproar over the tragedy which occurred in the home district of Health Minister Amar Agrawal.

The opposition Congress has demanded resignation of Singh and Agrawal in the wake of the incident.

The state government has sacked laproscopic surgeon RK Gupta who had conducted the botched sterilisation surgeries at Pendari camp and the Chief Medical and Health Official ( CMHO), Bilaspur, RK Bhange supervising the procedure for "dereliction of duty" and "negligence".

An FIR was also registered against Gupta in this connection following which he was arrested.

The government has already suspended the state coordinator, national family planning programme KC Urao, block medical officer (BMO), Takhatpur, Dr Pramod Tiawari, and assistant drug controller Hemant Shrivastav in this regard and has shifted director, Health Services, Kamalpreet Singh and assistant director Health Services, Bilaspur Amar Singh Thaur.

Moreover, Ramesh Mahawar, director of a drug firm, Mahawar Pharma Pvt Ltd and his son Sumit, which allegedly supplied the "poor quality" medicines administered to the women after sterilisation surgeries were arrested on November 13 and all their products have been banned across the state.