VIP visits: Attendants herded out of sight
UNION MINISTER OF STATE FOR HEALTH ANUPRIYA PATEL TOO VISITED THE 100BED WARD ON SATURDAY NIGHT FOR WHICH ADMINISTRATION HAD STOPPED MOVEMENT INSIDE THE WARD.
The police turned the BRD Medical College into a fortress here on Sunday as chief minister Yogi Adityanath, the state’s medical education minister Ashutosh Tandon and union health minister JP Nadda visited the institution.
Movement, right from the main gate up till the 100-bed ward where the children were admitted, was blocked.
Medicine counters stopped distributing medicines. Each ward had police on guard to stop anyone from entering or leaving.
“We have been asked not to stand up until the chief minister leaves the campus,” said Shankar, an attendant who was made to sit in a corner on the road outside the 100-bed ward where his 20-month-old child Om is admitted. He is a resident of Bakhera in Gorakhpur.
It was drizzling during the day but attendants outside the building had no option but to follow instructions.
The CM reached the medical college at 12.28 pm and went to all the wards with a team of doctors inquiring about the well-being of patients. He then held a discussion with doctors and stayed inside the building for over an hour.
The doctors too appeared more worried about CM than the patients during the entire period.
Right from the main entrance, the police had tied a rope to make sure no vehicle entered.
The attendants, who kept standing at the gate, were denied entry. Many of them didn’t even dare to speak to the police out of fear. “CM sahab is here. Hume intezar karna hoga,” (The CM is here we need to wait),” said Rajwati, a patient’s attendant in the lobby of the ward. A majority of the patients and attendants had to walk the 500 metre stretch that had a dozen constables standing to check any vehicle other than the police jeeps. For those inside the ward, the difficulties were no less. “The guard has asked us not to move outside and if we do so, we will not be allowed entry. But I need to get medicines,” said Raju, an attendant. All the beds in the 100-bed ward at present are occupied by severely ill children. Bihar resident Phoolmati, whose eight-year-old grandson Gullet is admitted in the neonatal ward, said local security personnel had asked her to find a place in the corner as the CM was expected anytime. “My grandson is semi-conscious for the last seven days. He is on oxygen support,” she said. Union minister of state for health Anupriya Patel too visited the 100-bed ward on Saturday night for which administration had stopped movement inside the ward. Visits by other VIPs, including Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, BSP delegation led by state president Ram Achal Rajbhar, another delega- tion under Congress’s Padrauna MLA Ajay Kumar Lallu and various other local leaders kept on disturbing the patient care system. “If VIPs come, they should follow the protocol as the common man does. When they bring police inside and the area is cordoned off, it obviously hampers treatment,” said a doctor posted at the medical college. A brawl between journalists and police inside the ward resulted in the breaking of a glass pane.
NO STOPPING VIPS
Thought the attendants and patients faced difficulty, the MPs and MLAs who came before the CM’s visit had free entry along with their staff.
MP Kamlesh Paswan, Nautanwa MLA Amanmani Tripathi, MLA Vipin Singh and MLA Jata Shankar Tripathi arrived before the CM. They walked easily inside. Some of the VIPs sat inside the doctors’ chambers while the doctors, busy preparing for the CM’s visit, kept standing outside.