Thaindian News

Kolkata, June 30 (IANS) Facing a public outcry over the death of 18 children in the state-run B.C. Roy Children’s Hospital here, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Thursday hit back at the erstwhile Left Front government and said the state lacked a proper medical infrastructure with 140 children dying daily.

“Infant mortality needs to be looked at very seriously. As per 2009 records, the infant mortality rate in the state is 40,000 per annum. Around 140 children die daily,” said Banerjee, who also holds the health portfolio.

The Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress-Congress government came to power in the state in May after routing the Left Front, that was in the saddle for 34 years since 1977.

The deaths since Wednesday led to angry demonstrations by the dead childrens’ parents and relatives who ransacked a part of the hospital and blocked a nearby arterial road. Drawing flak, hospital superintendent Dilip Pal has expressed a desire to quit office.

The chief minister also said malnutrition was a major cause of infant mortality. “There are many contributory social causes, one of which is malnutrition of the mother. We need to ensure that malnutrition is taken care of.”

Issuing a stern warning to people neglecting duty, she said: “Politics in hospitals is not acceptable. Those who try to neglect their duties because they owe allegiance to some political party will be dealt with strongly.”

On the children’s deaths at the B.C. Roy Hospital, she said: “Several of the children died in the intensive care unit. Some of them had heart ailments while seven of them were brought in in critical conditions. One of the children taken to R.N. Tagore Hospital was brought in here as they had said that the baby wouldn’t survive.”

She also said several doctors have occupied hospitals and are using these as residences, which was not acceptable, and steps will be taken to move them out.