Amritsar, June 15
Rattanjeet Kaur has not come out of shock. She lost her first child within 36 hours of his birth, due to alleged negligence of doctors at ESI Hospital, Amritsar. Now two months have passed since the incident happened, the Punjab Health Department, Chandigarh, has yet to fix the liability for this grave loss.

Rattanjeet’s father Jagir Singh, a retired chief pharmacist, who himself served in the same hospital for over 19 years, said he had approached this hospital for her daughter’s delivery under the impression that she would get the best treatment but it was not to be.

Nevertheless, following a complaint submitted by Rattanjeet, a school teacher, an inquiry was conducted by the Medical Superintendent Dr V.S. Mohi. It, reportedly, held the gynaecologist Dr Kiranjeet Kaur responsible for gross negligence in performing her duties, which resulted in the death of a healthy child due to respiratory problem.

Though, a detailed report framing serious charges against the gynaecologist, had already been sent to the Punjab Health Department on May 24, Dr Ashok Nayyar, Additional Director, Health Services, Punjab, maintained that the report has yet to reach his table.

It is to mention that on March 3, Rattanjeet was left on the mercy of two staff nurses and a Class IV employee in the hospital’s labour room, as Dr Kaur, the only gynaecologist with the hospital, could not make it on time.

Upon reaching, Dr Kaur, reportedly, did not do the mandatory tests of the newborn, as she considered it to be a paediatrician’s job. Incidentally, both the paediatricians were not available then.

Seeing little hope, Jagir Singh took the child to a private hospital, but it was too late.

Though, Dr Kaur admitted that she couldn’t reach at the time of birth, but emphasised that her duties were confined to the birth of the child only. “I had made it ensured that the child was normal. There were no official guidelines as such, then, to conduct post delivery examination by a gynaecologist. It was the duty of a paediatrician”, she said.

The paediatricians, Dr Parveen Aggarwal and Dr Kamal Khanna, claimed that had anyone of them been informed on time, the child could have well been taken care of.

Dr Mohi said, “After thorough inquiry, I had concluded that Dr Kiranjeet Kaur was evidently negligent in performing her duties. The child could have been saved, had the doctor got done the mandatory tests of the child”.

“If no paediatrician was available in the hospital, the child could have been referred to the Government Medical College, located next to the hospital, but she did not. The detailed chargesheet has been sent to the Punjab Health Department for further course of action”, he added.

Whose accountability has to be fixed for this loss is yet to see, but the ground realities speak volumes about the faulty system prevailing in government hospitals.

Amritsar, June 15
More than 200 officials of the investigation wing of the Income Tax Department today raided the premises of a paper mill here today. The team simultaneously raided the residences and offices of the senior officials of the mill. The team, which landed on the premises early in the morning, inspected the documents regarding various financial transactions of the mill.

Anupam Garg, Joint Director of the investigating wing, however, refused to divulge any more details. “The process is still on,” he said.

Sources, who were part of the search party, termed it as one of the biggest-ever search operations in any of the industrial units in the northern part of the country. He said raids were carried out at about 25 places all over the country, including Delhi and Mumbai.

He said many foreign exchanges have come to light during the investigations which were part of an ongoing inquiry against the mill.

Nakodar, June 15
SDM Iqbal Singh Sandhu has unearthed two scandals in the Nakodar Nagar Council which caused a financial loss of Rs 23,95,380 to the council over the last three years.

The SDM found connivances of eight municipal employees - five executive officers, two inspectors and a clerk - with a contractor, Gagandeep, having a power of attorney of one of the partners Vinod Kumar of a fake firm being run by Vinod Kumar and Rakesh Kumar of Basti Sheikh, Jalandhar, to allot shops and vends at the Nakodar bus stand on contract basis.

It has been learnt that though the shops were allotted to Gagandeep, having power of attorney of the fake firm, on lease from April 1, 2007, to March 31, 2010, at an annual fee of Rs 7,98,456, i.e. 15 per cent extra from the old lease of Rs 6,94,313, but the allotment was made without any bid and not even a single paisa was deposited by anyone.

Iqbal Singh said here on Monday that he had written to the Jalandhar Deputy Commissioner, the Director, Local Bodies, and other authorities to order a high-level probe into the scandal.

While recommending a high-level vigilance probe against the guilty officers and others, the SDM said though the Nagar Council issued notices thrice on December 28, 2007, March 7, 2008, and December 30, 2008, to the contractors to deposit the amount, just to complete formalities, but nobody bothered to deposit the required amount as the council staff was hand in glove with them.

Sandhu found all Executive Officers S.P. Sharma, Jagtaran Singh, Suhdev Singh Randhawa, Paramjit Singh and Deepak Kumar, inspectors R.C. Suri and Gurmaij Singh and clerk Madan Lal posted at Nakodar during April 5, 2007 to March 31, 2010, guilty as none of them dared to recover the amount.

The SDM disclosed that no agreement was signed with the contractors, but the possession of the shops and vends at the Nakodar bus stand was given to them. He, however, said though the Nagar Council found the contractors defaulters and the terms of lease expired on March 31, 2010, yet the contractors continued their possession of the shops and vends. With a motive to help them, a resolution was passed on April 20, 2010, and they were asked to deposit rent instead of vacating the possession so that the accused contractors could knock the doors of a judicial court showing them as tenants and get stay with the alleged connivances of officials of the council.

Sandhu disclosed that even the council did not wait for the sanction of the Deputy Director, Local Bodies, which was compulsory and was given after 21 days of passing any resolution.

He alleged in his recommendations that in a surprising manner, the council officials adopted a different strategy and filed a case under the Public Premises Act to evict the council properties but, on the other hand, the council authorities again favoured the defaulters and allotted the contract of a cycle stand to the Gagandeep and the second scandal would also be enough to book those officials.

Local Bodies Deputy Director Pardeep Sabharwal said today he had sought the details of the cases from the officials concerned.