News Analysis India

Tag: Bhopal

  • Oxygen shortage: Six die in Madhya Pradesh, Bihar hospital chief drops letter bomb

    Express News Service
    PATNA/BHOPAL: Inadequate supply of oxygen is causing havoc in several places. In Bhopal, six patients died at the Government Medical College Hospital in Shahdol, allegedly due to this reason. In Patna, the superintendent of Nalanda Medical College and Hospital (NMCH) asked to be relieved, saying that the situation is out of his control because of shortage of the life-saving gas.

    While unconfirmed reports put the Shahdol tally at 10 deaths, the Medical College and district administration admitted that oxygen pressure was low and six people had died. But they added that low oxygen pressure cannot be blamed for the deaths, saying that they might have happened due to co-morbidities among the highly-critical patients. 

    “Report has been sought from the Medical College. Once that is with us, can we say something about the happenings,” said Shahdol divisional commissioner Rajiv Sharma. Hospital dean Dr Milind Shiralkar said experts have been called in to find out the exact cause behind the death of  the six patients.

    ALSO READ: Centre bans supply of oxygen to industries to meet demand from COVID-19 patients

    The kin of the deceased alleged that oxygen supply at the hospital was not enough. “My brother was 31 and recovering from Covid-19 till Saturday night. But at 4 am on Sunday, we were told he was dead. He died due to oxygen shortage,” said Prem Kevlani Dhanpuri, a resident of Shahdol. Feroz Khan, relative of another person who died, said the same. On Saturday, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had said there is no shortage of oxygen in Madhya Pradesh.

    In Patna, Vinod Kumar Singh’s letter to the principal health secretary caused a stir. The NMCH superintendent wrote that the hospital was facing a huge shortage of oxygen. He also said that cylinders of NMCH’s quota were sent to other hospitals. “As result of this, possibility of deaths of dozens of patients is very high. I suspect that action can be taken against me if that happens. I demand to be freed from the additional charge,” he wrote.

    The letter caused a flutter as opposition leader Tejashwi Yadav attacked Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. There are 160 Covid-19 beds at NMCH and all are occupied. Late on Saturday, 250 cylinders of oxygen were given to NMCH. It was assured that 250 more would be given shortly.

  • Night curfew to be imposed in Indore, Bhopal if COVID situation doesn’t improve in 3 days: Chouhan

    By Express News Service
    BHOPAL: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan made it clear on Friday that if the COVID-19 cases continued their upward trend in Indore and Bhopal in the next three days, then night curfew will be imposed in both cities from Monday. 

    The decision was made after the COVID-19 situation review meeting chaired by the CM in Bhopal on Friday. The meeting happened in the wake of six COVID-19 patients in Indore testing positive for the highly contagious UK variant of the killer virus and the novel Coronavirus cases continuing to rise significantly in Indore and Bhopal.

    “Six patients have been detected positive for the UK variant which spreads faster than other strains. Also the cases of the virus are rising rapidly once again in many districts of the state, particularly Indore and Bhopal.  During the last one week, Indore has reported an average 151 cases daily, while state capital Bhopal has reported 78 average cases daily, followed by 16 in Jabalpur, 12 in Betul and 11 cases each in Ujjain and Chhindwara. The cases in Indore have doubled in the last 15 days, owing to which strict measures are a must in both Indore and Bhopal, if the situation doesn’t improve in the next three days,” the CM said.

    In Indore, as many as six samples out of the 103 samples sent from Indore and Burhanpur for genome sequencing at the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in New Delhi, have tested positive for the UK strain. The reports from the NCDC were received in Indore on Thursday late night.

    Confirming the development, Indore Divisional Commissioner Pawan Sharma said on Friday that teams are being sent to these six persons (who have tested positive for the highly infectious UK strain) in Indore to figure out their travel history and also perform their and family members contact tracing.

    “As per state government’s directions, we’ll monitor the COVID-19 situation over the next three days and if the situation isn’t brought under control by then, we might even consider at imposing a night curfew in Indore,” the Indore Divisional Commissioner said.

    As per Indore district chief medical officer (CMHO) Dr Pravin Jadia, “we’re doing the contact tracing of the six persons in whom the UK variant has been detected. None of the six have had any UK or international travel history. Three of them work at the same factory in Indore.”  

  • Teenage rape survivor’s death: MP CM Chouhan orders SIT probe, says no one will be spared

    By Express News Service
    BHOPAL: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has ordered a Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe into the death of a 16-year-old rape survivor two days after an alleged overdose of sleeping pills at a government shelter home in Bhopal.

    The CM, meanwhile, is chairing a high-level meeting in Bhopal on Friday over recent cases of crimes against women including the death of the rape survivor.

    “We couldn’t save Bhopal’s daughter. It’s not an ordinary incident, but very unfortunate. An SIT will probe the entire incident, no one will be spared,” the CM said on Friday.

    A political controversy, meanwhile, has erupted over the police reportedly not allowing the teenager’s body to be taken home, but instead taking it to the crematorium directly for last rites by family members.

    Former Congress national president Rahul Gandhi tweeted over the issue, equating the incident with the horrific 2020 Hathras case in UP.

    “How many times will incidents like Hathras be repeated. Not only have BJP governments failed in women safety, but they are even unable to treat the families of exploited girls in a humane manner,” Gandhi tweeted on Friday.

    Senior Congress MLA and ex-MP law minister PC Sharma, meanwhile, demanded a CBI probe into the entire matter related to the girl’s death and cremation.

    The girl had died late on Wednesday night at Hamidia Hospital in Bhopal. But instead of allowing her kin to take the body to her home on Thursday, the police accompanied her father and uncle from hospital with the body to the crematorium.

    The other members of the girl’s family including her mother kept waiting for her body to be brought home before taking it for cremation.

    Later, another police team reportedly went to her home and brought other members of the family including women to the crematorium where her last rites were performed.

    According to additional SP (ASP Bhopal) Rajat Saklecha, the girl’s body was taken from the hospital to the crematorium with her family’s consent. The entire family performed the last rites amid police presence, he said.

    “The family wasn’t at all forced by police to take the body from the hospital to the crematorium,” Saklecha told The New Indian Express.

    The girl, who was among the five teenage survivors of a high-profile 2020 rape case, died at the state government’s Hamidia Hospital on Wednesday late night – two days after she had allegedly taken an overdose of sleeping pills at a government shelter home where she was housed along with the four other survivors in the same rape case.

    She died after battling for life on ventilator support for nearly two days at the government hospital.

    Two of the five teenage girls (all survivors of the high-profile rape case) had allegedly taken an overdose of sleeping pills on Monday afternoon. Both of them were first rushed to the JP Hospital on Monday, from where one of the girls stated to be critical was shifted to the Hamidia Hospital.

    The city police are now probing how sleeping pills reached the government shelter home, where the five girls have been housed following directions by the District Child Welfare Committee (CWC).

    The Bhopal district collector had already instituted a magisterial probe in the matter. The probe was being conducted by the additional district collector Maya Awasthi.

    The five girls were allegedly raped by 68-year-old Pyare Miyan in Bhopal. The high-profile rape and sex racket case was busted in July 2020. Pyare Miyan was arrested from a hideout in Srinagar.

  • 17-year-old rape victim dies after sleeping pills overdose in Madhya Pradesh

    By PTI
    BHOPAL: A 17-year-old victim of rape, in a case where the accused is an elderly newspaper owner, has died after allegedly taking an overdose of sleeping pills in Bhopal, an official said Thursday.

    The girl was admitted to Government Hamidia Hospital here on Monday night after she consumed sleeping pills at a shelter home in the Madhya Pradesh capital.

    Her condition was critical and she died on Wednesday night, the hospital’s superintendent, Dr I D Chourasia, said.

    The autopsy will be done soon, he added.

    In July last year, a case was registered against the accused Pyare Miya (68), who runs a local newspaper, of raping five minor girls on several occasions.

    The girl who took sleeping pills was one of the victims, Inspector General, Bhopal range, Upendra Jain said on Wednesday.

    The five victims had been kept in a government shelter home in view of the security.

    Of them, two girls fell ill and were admitted to the hospital on Monday night, the police official said.

    One of them allegedly consumed an excess dose of sleeping pills, he said, adding that the district collector had ordered the magisterial inquiry into the matter.

    Kamla Nagar police station in-charge Vijay Sisodia on Wednesday said an inquiry is underway to find out how the girl got sleeping pills in the shelter home.

    Besides Miya, who had been arrested from Jammu and Kashmir, his accomplice Sweety Vishwakarma (21) has also been booked for abetting the crime, police had said.

    In July last year, the police claimed to have seized porn CDs, high-end cars, liquor bottles, bones of wild animals and other things during raids on premises linked to Miya.

    He is facing charges under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO).

    The police have also invoked the Excise Act and the Wildlife Act following seizure of liquor, an antler and bones of wild animals from his flats, and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act as two of the victims belong to these communities.

  • Curfew imposed in three areas, prohibitory orders in 11 more places of Bhopal over fear of communial tension

    By Express News Service
    BHOPAL: Curfew was imposed in three communally sensitive police station areas and prohibitory orders were put in place in 11 other police station areas – all in old Bhopal city — as a precautionary measure over construction work by a particular community on a plot in Madhya Pradesh capital’s Sindhi Colony area.

    The curfew was imposed in Hanumanganj, Tila Jamalpura and Gautam Nagar police station areas till further orders, while prohibitory orders under Section 144 of CrPc were put in place in 11 other police station areas of the old city, including Shahjahanabad, Chhola Mandir, Nishatpura, Talaiya, Mangalwara, Ashoka Garden, Aishbagh, Jahangirabad, Station Bajaria, Berasia and Najirabad.

    According to the Bhopal district collector Avinash Lavania, there has been a dispute between two communities over a piece of land in Sindhi Colony area, owing to which a Receiver too was appointed by the court in the past.

    “Now, the High Court has decided the dispute in favour of one of the parties and no Receiver has yet been appointed by the court, so the party in whose favour the matter has been decided by the court is getting a boundary wall constructed on the concerned land. To ensure that there is no tension between the groups, such measures have been clamped in the concerned police station areas as a precautionary measure,” Lavania said.

    According to the deputy inspector general of police (DIG-Bhopal) Irshad Wali, “The security measures have been put in place as we anticipated that there might be some disturbance over the handover of land.

    As per informed sources, the security measures have been imposed following a MP High Court order, which came in favour of the RSS-associated Keshav Needam over a 30,000 sq ft land in Sindhi Colony area under Gautam Nagar police station.

    With the RSS-associated getting the possession of the land, construction work has been started for raising a boundary on the land, owing to which security measures were put in place to prevent any communal disturbance.

  • Stop Covaxin trial in Bhopal: NGOs working for gas victims

    By PTI
    BHOPAL: At least four NGOs working for the survivors of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy on Sunday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding that the ongoing clinical trials for Covaxin, an indigenously developed COVID-19 vaccine, be stopped in the Madhya Pradesh capital in view of the “gross violation of laws and guidelines”.

    In the letters addressed to the PM and Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, these NGOs have also sought punishment for the “responsible parties who were negligent in ensuring the safety, well being and the rights of the trial participants”.

    They also demanded monetary compensation for “damages caused during the Covaxin trial in Bhopal”.

    These letters have been written by Rashida Bee of Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmchari Sangh, Nawab Khan of Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangharsh Morcha, Rachna Dhingra of Bhopal Group for Information and Action, and Nausheen Khan of Children Against Dow Carbide.

    Covaxin is developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

    “We are writing to you to apprise you of the onground situation with regard to the conduct of the trial. Evidence has emerged that the trial in Bhopal is being conducted in gross violation of laws and guidelines governing clinical trials in India,” the NGOs stated in the letters, copies of which were shared with media persons.

    “This is leading to exploitation and harm to a community of people that are not just economically and socially deprived, but whose health is compromised owing to the destructive impact and its consequences,” they said.

    The NGOs alleged that vulnerable people were being misguided and herded to participate in the trials, and the consent procedure and other protocol of the testing are being flouted.

    ALSO READ: Man dies in Bhopal days after participating in COVID vaccine trial, police begins probe

    “The (clinical) trial should be stopped immediately and an impartial probe be conducted,” they demanded.

    Talking to reporters virtually, Rashida Bee said, “At least 700 of the 1,700 people on who this vaccine, with unknown efficacy, is being tested, are the people poisoned by Union Carbide (gas leak in 1984).

    “One gas victim has already died within 10 days of getting the trial shot and many continue to have health complaints of serious nature,” Bee alleged.

    A 42-year-old man, who had taken part in the clinical trial for Covaxin in Bhopal on December 12, died nine days later, with doctors suspecting that poisoning could be the cause.

    Bharat Biotech had said in a statement that preliminary reviews indicated that the death was unrelated to Covaxin.

    Bee claimed that nobody was punished for the “death of 13 gas victims during the trials by pharma companies at the Bhopal Memorial Hospital & Research Centre some 12 years ago”.

    ALSO READ: COVID-19 vaccine race – Where they stand currently

    She demanded compensation of Rs 50 lakh for the people “whohave diedduring the Covaxin trial, as being given in the case of deceased corona warriors”.

    Alleging irregularities in the conduct of the Covaxin trials, Dhingra said, “People whose health is compromised due to Union Carbide’s poisons are being given the Covaxin trial shots without their knowledge or consent”.

    She said audio and video consent should be taken of all the vulnerable people (before allowing them to volunteer for this clinical trial).

    “No records are kept of the health problems the trial’s participants have had following the shots and several have been turned away without tending to the adverse effects of the shots.

    Trial participants who leave or are excluded halfway are denied care and are not followed up,” she alleged.

    Shehzadi Bee of Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangharsh Morcha said, “In addition to immediate stopping of the trial and awarding compensation for the gas victim who has died during this trial, we demand a thorough and impartial audit, criminal punishment to officials and institutions responsible for this public health disaster and compensation for injuries caused due to the trial vaccines”.

    “By ignoring the ongoing criminal irregularities in the Covaxin trial in Bhopal, the Government is potentially unleashing a public health disaster on the 16th of this month,” said Nousheen Khan of the Children Against Dow Carbide.

    The Drugs Controller General of India last week approved Oxford COVID-19 vaccine Covishield, manufactured by Serum Institute, and Covaxin of Bharat Biotech for restricted emergency use in the country.

    The Central government on Saturday said India will launch its COVID-19 vaccination drive from January 16, with priority to be given to nearly three crore health care and frontline workers.