Bihar Government TURNS BLIND EYE TO THOSE BLINDED AT A GOVT EYE CAMP

NCP exposes the real face of SUSHASHAN of Nitish Government in Bihar
31 persons blinded at a Government Eye Camp at Kasba, Purnea, Bihar left to beg for living.

New Delhi , the 29th April, 2010

Nationalist Congress Party National Media Convenor Prof Suraj Yadav has submitted Memorandum to the President Of India, Union Health Minister, National Human Rights Commission and the Governor of Bihar complaining about apathy of Bihar Government and its insensitivity on ignoring repeated representation of 31 poor citizens from SC/ST, backward class and minority sections of society who have lost their eyesight, some becoming totally blind after operation at Eye Camp at Kasba, Purnea (Bihar) in Jan. 2009, and getting no response from Govt. of Bihar for treatment at Govt. Cost and Compensation. Prof Yadav said that such incidents, which are not exceptions, expose the ‘sushashan’ of Nitish Government in Bihar. The District Magistrate, Purnea enacted a farce of enquiry to reject the genuine demands of the hapless citizens and also for the conspiracy to protect the guilty doctor. It has been tried not to let the story appear in the media lest it depicts the ‘sushashan’ of Nitish Government in bad light.
31 poor and downtrodden citizens belonging to SC/ST, backward classes and minority sections of society who went for eye operation (for cataract) at a Free Cataract operation camp organized by District Blindness Control Committee, Purnea (Bihar) and a NGO-National Consumer Organization, ‘SAVERA’ from 24.01.2009 to 27.01.2009, by the Medical Officer Dr. Srikant Chowdhary, were blinded. All the patients operated at this camp lost their eyesight and some became totally blind. Some patients complained that the Doctor deliberately operated the healthy eye, and since this eye was also lost, eventually they became totally blind. As a result most of these poor patients have been left with begging as the only source of living.
NCP leader Sh Tariq Anwar has assured the poor and affected citizens of raising the matter at appropriate levels to grant justice to them and also to punish the doctor , if found guilty of negligence.

Suraj Yadav
Assistant Professor,DU.
National Convenor, Media Department,
Nationalist Congress Party.