Traffic on the arterial Alagarkoil Road remained paralysed at K. Pudur in the city for about an hour on Thursday night, as residents of Gandhipuram squatted on the road in protest against a delivery performed at Madurai Corporation’s Community Health Centre (CHC) in candlelight, which, they alleged, resulted in stillbirth.
According to the relatives of Rajasekar, an autorickshaw driver, his wife, R. Amsavalli, was admitted in labour in the afternoon at the CHC.
But no doctor was available to perform the delivery. When the delivery took place in the night, it happened under candlelight as there was no provision to provide electricity.
Power was restored at 9.30 p.m., after the usual outage. They claimed that nurses at the CHC were not qualified to perform child delivery.
Demanding action against officials for not posting a doctor at the CHC, relatives of Mr. Rajasekar and other residents of Gandhipuram squatted on the Alagarkoil Road with the stillborn baby.
However, they were told by the police officials that nurses present at the CHC were qualified to perform child delivery. They were also advised to take up the issue with the Madurai Corporation officials. They withdrew the agitation after about an hour.
