The Congress party vice president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday visited the victims of the botched up family planning surgeries in Bilaspur and blamed the state government for the incident.
“This is not just a case of negligence but corruption had a role to play in it. Outdated medicines seem to have been used, but the state government is not accepting its responsibility and is trying to cover-up the lapses,” said Mr.Gandhi at a press conference after meeting the victims at the Chhattisgarh Institute of Medical Sciences (CIMS) and Apollo hospital in Bilaspur .
He also paid a visit to the relatives of women who died after the surgeries.
Thirteen women lost their lives and many were admitted to different hospitals in Bilaspur earlier this week after undergoing "faulty" surgeries at family planning camps organized by the government.
The Congress vice president alleged that "defective" medicines were being burnt in an attempt to cover up the issue.
“Government is there to serve the people and provide proper health care facilities. But exactly opposite is happening in Chhattisgarh. There is something amiss in this case. A complete family depends on a mother and these surgeries have damaged many families by damaging mothers. The family planning camps were not organized properly,” Mr.Gandhi told reporters.
Expressing “grief” over the deaths, he said that the state government and state health minister should be held responsible for the incident.
