Chief Minister Raman Singh visited the women at a hospital in Bilaspur today.
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh has ordered a judicial probe into the botched operations at two government-run sterilization camps in Bilaspur. While the doctor involved in the Pendari camp, RK Gupta, got arrested, the government banned six drugs given to the women, suspecting they were spurious. Samples of the drugs will be sent for testing.
All 83 women operated upon in one camp and around six at another had fallen sick, 13 of them have died. While doctors questioned the quality of drugs, activists and politicians blamed the steep targets set for sterilization by the government and the commercialization of the process. (Read:
Better Financial Incentives, Promised Centre's Letter Just Weeks Ago)
Today, Union Health Minister JP Nadda, said the Centre has set no targets for sterilisation. (
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Dr Gupta, who had been on the run and got arrested this morning, said he had been under pressure to meet targets. On Saturday, he had conducted 83 operations in just five hours.
But he, too, blamed the deaths on the medicines. While being led away by the police, he said, "It was not my fault - the administration pressured me to meet targets. The surgeries went well but the problem was with the medicines given to the women."
In January, Dr Gupta had got an award from state health minister Amar Agarwal for a record number of tubectomies. (
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In face of opposition demands that Minister Agarwal resign, the Chief Minister, who visited the women at the hospital this morning, said nothing should be decided till the probe report comes in. Assuring that the guilty would be punished, he said, "We have decided to hold a judicial inquiry, none of the culprits will be spared".
No deadline, however, has been set for the judicial inquiry.
The government has to file two reports on the case - one for the Chhattisgarh High Court within 10 days, another for the National Human Rights Commission within two weeks.
Twelve women had died at the camp in Pendari, held in a dilapidated hospital closed since April, so far. (Read:
Hospital Was Shut Since April, Has no Basic Infrastructure)
A woman who had undergone the operation at neighbouring Gaurela, too, died. She belonged to the endangered Baiga tribe, for whom family planning is not advised.