THE TIMES OF INDIA, KOLKATASATURDAY, OCTOBER 29, 20114 TIMES CITY

Vol. XII Serial No. 23 Published for the proprietors, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd, by Sk. Md. Ali at 105/7A, S N Banerjee Road, Kolkata-700 014 and printed by him at Times House, Plot no.2, Block- EM, Sector-V, Salt Lake City, Kolkata-700 091, Karuna Age Publications Pvt Ltd.A-44/54, Mancheswar Ind Estate, Bhubaneswar-751 017, Neutral Publishing House Ltd, Plot no. D-9 & D-10 , Patliputra Industrial Area, Patna-800 013, Anubhuti Printers & Publications (P) Ltd, A DEE Tower, Lalmati, Beltola (NH-37), Gu-wahati- 781 029 and Neutral Publishing House Ltd, Old H.B. Road, Ranchi-834 001. Editor :Sumit Sen & Regional Editor: Keshav Pradhan- responsible for selection of news under PRB Act. RNI no.WBENG/1999/1062. Tel no. Kolkata (033) 6639 1400, Response (033) 6639 1600. Fax: (O33) 2282 4996 Bhubaneswar- (0674) 257 1908, Patna (0612) 221 6301, Guwahati (0361) 2456 735 and Ranchi (0651) 2216 384. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission of the publisher is prohibited.

Burdwan: A day after Kolkata’s BCRoy child hospital was given a cleanchit on the death of 12 children, an-other 12 have reportedly died in thepediatrics ward of Burdwan Medi-cal College Hospital (BMCH) overthe last two days. The hospital onFriday sent a prima facie report tothe state health department, butchief minister Mamata Banerjeehas directed top health officials tovisit the hospital to probe the causeof the deaths.

Following Mamata’s directive,director of medical education Su-santa Banerjee and health and fam-ily welfare commissioner DilipGhosh reached the hospital on Fri-day and initiated a probe. They heldmeetings with hospital superin-tendent Gadadhar Mitra andBMCH principal Sarit Choudhury.

Talking to TOI, BMCH deputysuperintendent Tapas KumarGhosh said: “At present, around 160babies are admitted in the pediatricward which has only 60 beds. Theone- to three-day-old babies were un-

derweight and have been sufferingfrom various disease like encephali-tis, septicemia and jaundice. Theseled to their deaths,” he added.

The authority admitted that hos-pital staff work under serious pres-sure as hundreds of patients are re-ferred here from other districts.Infrastructural bottleneck and lackof manpower add to the problem,but the deaths were not caused dueto negligence, a source said.

“So far, none has lodged any offi-cial complaint,” said Ghosh. There

have been no agitation in the hospi-tal due to the deaths. Hospital sourc-es said three to four babies die every-day on an average.

The two ministers of this dis-trict — law minister Maloy Ghatakand science and technical educationminister Rabiranjan Chattopad-hyay — visited BMCH earlier andtried to improve the facilities but the situation has hardly improved.At present, there’s neither a neo-na-tal unit nor a sick neo-natal careunit in BMCH.

Inquiry Ordered Following Directive From Mamata

Now, 12 crib deaths inBurdwan hospital

Debajyoti Chakraborty TNN

Kolkata: Four more babies diedat BC Roy Post Graduate Instituteof Paediatric Sciences on Fridaywith the hospital administrationmaintaining that the deaths wereinevitable since the infants hadbeen brought in a critical state.The health department said it was taking steps to check cribdeaths at BC Roy, which is the big-gest referral paediatric hospitalin the state.

A state-of-the-art sick new-born unit will be thrown open byOctober 31. It will have 30 to 40beds and equipment that have sofar not been used in the hospital.Apart from raising the number ofbeds, it will also let the hospitalprovide better care to critical pa-tients. “It’s going to be a big step.Babies with low birth weight andinfections will be accommodatedthere. We hope to be able to checkthe number of deaths once theunit starts rolling next week,”said D K Pal, superintendent ofthe 300-bed hospital.

Critically ill babies at govern-ment hospitals, referred to BCRoy, will now be provided freetransport. Ambulances will bestationed at district hospitals tomove critically ill babies to BCRoy. This will help curb the mortality rate.

A senior official said pregnantwomen will also be given the facil-ity. The ministry has also in-structed all hospitals to create apatient-friendly environment,other than arranging chairs forpregnant women in the waitingspace outside labour rooms.

A recent visit by a centralteam found a lack of user-friendlyamenities in hospitals apart frompoor sanitation. A drive to correctthese will begin from November.

Terming Friday’s deaths as

“unavoidable”, Pal said whilethree of the four infants were un-derweight, one had meningitis.“They weighed between 1.8 kgand 2.2 kg and carried infections.As often happens, these babieswere brought in very late. Theycouldn’t be saved,” said Pal.

The hospital has started coun-selling parents of critically ill ba-bies in a bid to apprise them of thesituation. Doctors are goingaround the wards, interactingwith mothers and keeping them

informed about their babies’ con-dition. “We are telling them aboutthe exact state of the child so thatthey have a fair idea about thechances of survival. We don’twant patients to harbour falsehopes and accuse the hospital ofnegligence,” Pal added.

Meanwhile, the health depart-ment is planning to implementthe Janani-Shishu Suraksha Ka-ryakram launched last August.Under the scheme, treatment issupposed to be free for newbornbabies and their mothers for thefirst three days. Sick newbornswill be treated free of charge for amonth. Medicines, diagnosis, pro-vision for blood transfusion andfood will also be provided free ofcharge. They will also have accessto free transportation from hometo hospital.

Meanwhile, People for BetterTreatment (PBT) — an NGO thatfights for patients’ rights —sought details of the inquiry intothe crib deaths at BC Roy Hospitalalong with their medical records.It also called for an independentinquiry into the deaths, by a phy-sician. PBT president Kunal Sa-ha, who won a record compensa-tion of Rs 1.77 crore last week formedical negligence leading to hiswife’s death, said a case will be fil-ed on behalf of the parents wholost their children at BC Roy.

Four more babies die at BC Roy

Parents wait outside BC Roy Hospital on Friday

Biplab BhattacharjeeTIMES NEWS NETWORK

Kolkata: A youth from a Mur-shidabad village situated nearthe Indo-Bangla border was ar-rested on Friday for allegedlymaking a threat call to the chiefminister’s office.

Kolkata Police’s SpecialTask Force, CID and Intelli-gence Branch rounded up theaccused, Mohammad Musta-kin, from Murshidabad in ajoint raid in the morning and

brought him to Kolkata for fur-ther investigation.

According to police, officersat the CM secretariat at Writers’Building received a call on Octo-ber 25 from an unknown personwho threatened to blow up thestate secretariat. “The call wasmade shortly after noon,” saidan officer. Top cops were in-formed soon after the call andthe CM was also intimated. Ma-mata Banerjee asked all state in-vestigation agencies to find outthe accused.

Police found that the call hadbeen made from a cellphone andthe tower location suggestedthat the caller was then in Mur-

shidabad. The technical wing ofSTF finally specified the loca-tion. On further inquiry, it wasfound that the SIM card used tomake the call was registered in afictitious name.

With the help of local policeand state IB, STF officers zeroedin on Mohammad Mustakin, aquack at Funti village of Ranita-la, around 8 km from Lalbagh,close to the Indo-Bangla border.But the police could not findMustakin in his ancestral home.He was rounded up from his in-laws’ house at Barua village ofBeldanga in Murshidabad.

During interrogation, theyouth claimed that he was amember of the Popular Front ofIndia — an NGO for minorities.However, district secretary ofthe organization, Seikh Saha-buddin, rubbished his claim. Hereportedly told police that Mus-takin is a cheat and has no con-nection with the organization.

Senior police officers thentook Mustakin to Kolkata. Onhis way to the city, the accusedcomplained of chest pain and af-ter primary treatment, was ad-mitted to SSKM Hospital. “Weare yet to interrogate him andfind out why he made the call,”said an STF officer.

Quack arrested forthreat call to CMO

Kolkata: Billboards installedin Salt Lake’s traffic islandsmay soon be dismantled. TheBidhannagar Municipality isplanning to pull them downand disallow any new ones inthese islands.

“We will talk to advertis-ing agencies on this matter,”said municipality chairper-

son Krisna Chakraborty. There are more than 50

traffic islands in the town-ship. Many of them, like PNBIsland, Karunamoyee Island,City Centre Island, are full ofbillboards, some of whichblock the view of motorists.Besides, these billboards alsodistract drivers and maycause road accidents.

The transport departmentunder the erstwhile Left

Front government had pro-posed reducing the size oftraffic islands to create moreroad space. Though not all is-lands were downsized, someimportant ones like PNB Island were.

To remove billboards,however, the responsibilityfor the maintenance of trafficislands has to be taken awayfrom the outdoor advertisingagencies. The previous Left-run civic board had thrustthis responsibility on theagencies which were allowedto install billboards in return.

The civic authorities haveidentified 378 billboards inthe township. Only 190 ofthese were found to be legal.The civic authorities are atpresent trying to crackdownon all illegal hoardings in thetownship that number 188.Several hoardings remain inplace though their tenureshave expired. And manyhoardings have been put upwithout permission from thecivic body. The civic author-ities have learnt that a partic-ular advertising agency per-mitted by the previousLeft-run board to set uphoardings has not renewedits licence after a year.

Salt Lake trafficislands may bebillboard-free

Howrah: SantragachiJheel, which till 10 days ago,was in news for all the wrongreasons, has turned into atourist hot spot.

At least 60 birds — bothIndian and exotic — havemade the 10-hectare water-body their home sinceThursday, drawing visitorsin large numbers. The jheelis expecting quite a gather-ing this weekend. It seemsthat the initiative taken by afew responsible citizens alittle over a week back is fi-nally paying off.

Till the middle of themonth, the massive water-body was teeming with wa-ter hyacinth, drawing media

attention following com-plaints from locals. Till lastyear, the state forest depart-ment would clean up thejheel that technically be-longs to the railways. How-ever, this year, the forest de-partment showed no sign ofcleaning the lake eventhough the migratory birds’arrival was imminent.

Finally, a group of citi-zens decided to take up thecause themselves. Amongthem is former cricketerArun Lal, environment ac-tivists Mudar Patherya andArjan Basu Roy and busi-nessmen Sandip Seksariaand Jayanta Chatterjee andadman from Mumbai withcity links, Peeyush Pandey.The initiative is being com-pletely funded by them.Among the corporatehouses that later collaborat-ed are TIL, Quippo and Hin-dusthan Engineering andIndustries Ltd.

On Friday, locals said30% of the lake had beencleaned up and hence thebirds had started coming.People saw at least 60 birdsswimming in the water andsitting on the islands ofdried water hyacinth thathave been created for them.

“Most of the birds thathave been coming are theLesser Whistling Ducks andCommon Moor Hen. Theyare from the sub-Himalayanregion,” said bird expert Ar-jan Basu Ray. However, somelocals said that they hadeven seen Grey Herons,which belong to Siberia.“The arrival of Grey Heronsshows that everything is inorder and the other birdswill follow,” said Alok Mul-lick, a resident of Santraga-chi and a spokesman of thelocal Chotodal Club.

The work needs to becompleted in the next oneweek, else birds would be

scared of the labourers andmachines working in thejheel. “I cannot tell you howhappy I am that our plumedfriends haven’t given us themiss this time. Our initia-tive has been successful,”said Arun Lal, who is out ofthe country, over e-mail.

Locals, however, com-plained that the HowrahMunicipal Corporation hasdone nothing to install a vatnear the jheel despite re-quests from the locals. An-other complaint was thatsince the sewerage of the ar-ea flows out to the lake, it isaffecting the water. Member,mayor-in-council, Samir Sa-ha promised to look into thecomplaints.

District forest officerGautam Chakraborty saidthat he had heard that birdshave started coming to the jheel, but he doesn’t yethave any official confirma-tion on this.

Jheel clean-up works, birds arrive

Migratory birds have started flocking to Santragachi Jheel since Thursday

Subhojyoti Kanjilal

Rupak Banerjee TNN

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

BOMB THREAT

To remove billboards,however, theresponsibility for themaintenance of trafficislands has to be takenaway from the outdooradvertising agencies

UNDER SCANNER: The paediatric ward of BMCH

Sukanta Mukherjee

Aamne Samne

ISaturday, October 29, 8.30 pmInterview with Ashwani Kumar , M0SPlanning, Science & Technology and EarthSciences

1-on-OneSunday, October 30, 10pm

Topic:Legacy of RabindranathTagoreParanjoy Guha Thaku rta in

conversation with Achala Moulik ,Author, A A Man For All Times’

Know Your MPFriday, November 4, 8:30 pmDhiraj Sirigh in conversation withRama Devi, MP from Sheohar (Bihar)

Weekend Classic FilmSaturday, October 29, 9pm

Sunday, October 30, 2 pm

THE BLUE UMBRELLA

Director: Vishal Bhardwaj2005 / / 92 minutes I Colour / / HindiCast:Pankaj Kapoor, Shreya Sharma,Deepak Dobriya l & othersNational Award for Best Children s

Film, 2006Uninterrupted ViewingFilm Courtesy NFDC

PerspectiveMonday to Friday, 10 am

InsightMonday to Friday, 130pm

Lok ManchMonday, Wednesday & Friday , 7 pm

Public ForumTuesday, Thursday & Saturday, 7pm

Legal PointSaturday, October 29, 2pm

Topic: Bank Loans

Healthy IndiaSaturday, October 29, 6pm

Topic: Dengue

Career CaféTuesday, November 1, 5.30 pmPervin Malhotr a outlines what it meansto be a Private Investigator

OTHER PROGRAMMES

LIVE PROGRAMMES

No.H.41 .A.52/l3lTende r iLaund ry/Part-llI /2010 Dated: 20.10.2011

TENDER NOTICE- TWO BID SYSTEM

Sealed Tender in prescribed forms are invited by the undersigned from bonafide Contractors/ Suppliers/Agencies for providing washing of hospital linen and laundry service to this this hospital on contract basis.

Estimated Tender value - Rs. 10 ,00,000/-

Earnest money deposit - Rs. 20 ,000/-

Period for supply of Blank Tender Forms and related documents 31 .10.2011 to 21.11.2011at the Hospital on all Working Days (Except Saturdays, Sundays (Between 10 AM to 3.OOPM)and Holidays)

_________________________

Last Date & Time of submission of completed Tender Document 22.11.2011 at 2 00PMin the Tender Box kept in the Office of ESIC Hospital.

________________________

Date & lime of Opening of Tender 22.11.2011 at 2 30PM

ESI POST GRADUATE INSTITUTE

OF MEDICAL SCIENCES & RESEARCH

AND

ESIC HOSPITAL & OCCUPATIONAL DISEASE CENTRE (E.Z.)(A Statutory Body under Ministry of Labour, Govt. of India)

Diamond Harbour Road, P.O. : Joka, Kolkata -700 104Fax : 033 2467 2795, Phone : 033 2467 2799/ 6280/ 1764

(An ISO 9001 : 2008 Certified Organisation)

Cost of Tender Form Rs. 500/- (Rupees Five Hundred only) in shape of Account payee DemandDraft in favour of ESI Fund Nc. No.1 payable at Kolkata. Cheque will not be accepted. The tenderforms can also be downloaded from ESIC website www.esic.nic.in and on such occasion cost asabove should be enclosed with the tenders.Tender application may be send by courier/ postl by hand, no application will be received after last

date of submission. The organization reserves the right to accept or reject any tender.Dr. K.K. Pal

Medical Superintendent

)

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