BJP men 'raids' Bareilly dist hosp, misbehaves with staff

Bareilly: In a bizarre incident that highlights total disregard of the rules, a large number of BJP workers, led by city unit president Umesh Katheriya, on Thursday stormed the premises of the district hospital here on the pretext of conducting a raid and later claimed to have recovered expired medicines and injections from the wards. The BJP team, which did not have any authorised permission to conduct such a raid, also manhandled some hospital staffers and disrupted medical services, alleged doctors and other staff at the hospital.

Following the raid, the hospital staff went on a flash strike, bringing medical services to a halt. Members from both the sides later went to the Kotwali police station in the evening to file their complaints against each other. "A mob of 150-200 BJP workers entered the children's ward and started checking patients' records and other documents. When we resisted, a BJP leader claimed that they were authorised to conduct such raids," said nurse Daisy Aster Lal.

"Apart from disrupting work at the wards, some unidentified people also sexually assaulted one of the nurses. There was utter chaos and patient suffered as a result of the illegal raid by BJP workers," said another staff member at the hospital.

Several senior administrative officials, including city superintendent of police (SP) Rohit Singh Sajwan, city magistrate U P Singh and several circle officers of police reached the Kotwali police station to take stock of the situation. "Both the sides have given written complaints, pinning blame on each other. We are finding out if such an action (by BJP members) was justified, given that there was no official permission for conducting such a raid," said SP Rohit Singh Sajwan.

Given the gravity of the allegations and involvement of members of the ruling party, police claimed that district magistrate R V Singh, who had been out of station and was expected to reach the city late in the evening, would intervene and take necessary action.

Talking about the raid, BJP city president Umesh Katheriya said, "When we complained to the chief medical superintendent (CMS) about expired medicines being used in the hospital, he started creating a ruckus to cover up the lapses on his part."

The CMS's antics went on for nearly 30 minutes even as hundreds of patients and their family members were present in the hospital premises. Operation in several wards, including the children's ward, was severely affected, with many nurses on duty claiming that BJP workers terrorised them for alleged irregularities.

Justifying the raid, the BJP team claimed that stocks of expired medicines were stealthily removed. "Even as hundreds of children are dying across the state, this district hospital continues to be negligent and is using expired medicines. When we were at the hospital premises, huge stocks of expired medicines were removed from the wards," said senior BJP worker Devendra Joshi.

"The team of BJP members had no official permission to conduct checks in the hospital. We will look into the allegations of using expired medicines, but the way the raid was was conducted needs to be probed," said K S Gupta, chief medical superintendent.