"Aam Admi" fire's email to President on RTI issue

This is the first email from Pune to the Honorable President on the the contempt shown by the Dean Dr. Arun Jamkar and Chief Administrative Officer Ganesh Narayan Bardare of the BJ Medical College and Sassoon General Hospital in Pune towards the RTI and how methods are being deployed by them mindlessly to scuttle the powerful weapon of RTI given to the Citizens. Also how complaints about these people to various authorities are not responded to which defeats the spirits of the law. Such people who defy the law should be punished and not let off lightly.

Quote: President's Secretariat

Your Request/Grievance Registration Number is : PRSEC/E/2009/00506Note: Kindly note your Request Registration Number for further references
An e-mail has been sent to the e-mail id whistleblower786@gmail.com, as provided by you

Dear President, Greetings,

The Right to Information Act. 2005 was ushered in to bring in transparency, accountablity and to contain corruption. But with my experience,this powerful weapon in the hands of the "Aam Admi" is being neglected by the government authorities themself.

For the past several years, I have been sending emails to the State Governor, Chief Minister, Chief Secretary, Secretary Medical Education Department and the Director of Medical Education and Research, bringing to their attention the contempt shown by the Dean of the BJ Medical College and Sassoon General Hospital, Pune, Dr. Arun Jamkar and the Chief Administrative Officer, Ganesh Narayan Bardare towards the RTI applications and appeals filed by me. Also I had pointed out how these two are incompetent and misfit for their posts, and how they are protecting and shielding those quilty,how scams exposed thru RTI are pushed beneath the carpet by Dr. Jamkar and Bardare. I explained how they are showing contempt to the RTI law and even to the verbal orders of the State Information Commission.

Unfortunately , there is no response from the Governor, CM, Chief Secretary, Secretary Medical Education or Director of DMER. No basic courtesy. The govenment website is nearly defucnt, and all email addresses on its website are completely defunct.

I seek your kind intervention to ensure that these peopel in the government respond to the people and that the emails are functional and action is taken against Dr. Jamkar and Bardare for harrasing and scuttling RTI applicants.

Thank you

Regards,
Shahid Raza Burney
Senior Journalist and RTI Activist
Founder Member Humjanenge RTI Discussion Board

'आम आदमी'ची कैफियत राष्ट्रपती भवनापर्यंत...

http://www.maharashtratimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/4818180.cms

म. टा. विशेष प्रतिनिधी। नवी दिल्ली Saturday, July 25, 2009

तुमची एखादी महत्त्वाची फाइल पास करण्यासाठी सरकारी अधिकारी त्यावर वजन ठेवायला सांगतोय? तुमच्या गल्लीतल्या गुंडाला 'खाकी' संरक्षण मिळतेय? तुमच्या स्वयंसेवी संस्थेला सरकारी मदत हवी आहे? तर मग थेट संपर्क साधा राष्ट्रपती भवनाशी. तुमच्या तक्रारी-सूचनांची योग्य दखल घेऊन त्यावर कार्यवाही करण्यात येईल, याची खात्री बाळगा...

देशातील आम आदमीचे कनेक्शन थेट राष्ट्रपती भवनाशी जोडण्याची किमया साधणार आहे ते helpline.rb.nic.in नामक पोर्टल. राष्ट्रपती प्रतिभा पाटील यांनी शुक्रवारी त्याचा शुभारंभ केला. सरकारी अथवा बिगर सरकारी यंत्रणेद्वारे होणारी सर्वसामान्यांची छळवणूक वा अन्य स्वरूपाच्या व्यथा, वेदना, तक्रारींची दखल त्यातून राष्ट्रपती भवन घेईल.

राष्ट्रपती भवनात विविध प्रकारच्या तक्रारींची रोज सरासरी ७५० पत्रे येतात. यातली निम्म्याहून अधिक पत्रे टपालातून येतात. तर, इतर तक्रारी ई-मेल, फॅक्स आणि कुरिअरसारख्या माध्यमातून येतात. त्यातील बहुतांश तक्रारी पोलिसांचे अत्याचार, सार्वजनिक सोयींची हेळसांड, सरकारी अथवा बिगर सरकारी यंत्रणांद्वारे होणारा छळ, सरकारी मदत व खासगी समस्यांशी संबंधित असतात. राष्ट्रपतींकडे पाठवलेल्या आपल्या तक्रारीचे पुढे नेमके काय झाले, याची अद्ययावत माहिती आतापर्यंत तक्रारदाराला कळत नसे. मात्र आता हेल्पलाइन पोर्टलवर आपण पाठवलेल्या तक्रारीची ताजी स्थिती काय, हे कळू शकेल. ई-याचिका दाखल करणे, पुराव्याचे दस्तावेज स्कॅन करून पाठवणे, ई-मेलद्वारे तक्रार मिळाल्याची पोहोचपावती मिळणे आदी अनेक वैशिष्ट्ये या पोर्टलमधे आहेत.

रोज मिळणाऱ्या तक्रारींची छाननी राष्ट्रपती भवनातील हेल्पलाईन डेस्कतफेर् यापुढे केली जाईल. छाननीत प्रामाणिक व योग्य वाटणाऱ्या तक्रारी संबंधित विभाग व मंत्रालयांकडे पाठवण्यात येतील. मंत्रालय केंद सरकारचे असो अथवा राज्य सरकारशी संबंधित, राष्ट्रपतींकडून येणाऱ्या तक्रारींकडे कोणालाही दुर्लक्ष करता येणार नाही, हा या पोर्टलचा विशेष आहे.

Administrative Arrogance And Contempt of RTI law

Open letter to Dr. Arun Jamkar, Dean BJMC and Sassoon General Hospital, Pune
Dear Dr. Jamkar, Greetings,

I regret of praising you before many personalities, and I take back those good things which communicated. A good administrator is one that understands or tries to understand. But unfortunately, you don’ adopt to any of this. You just fail to understand. You talk shoot big, and think the world is full of fools, the IAS officers are nuts and your are the only brilliant person in the world. Again, this is not true, but the reverse.

During our marathon meeting on Monday, I could see the administrative arrogance on written on your face and your stubborn attitude, unwilling to listen and understand. You yourself did not know what you were talking; many of the things were off the mark and made no sense. This indicated that your incompetence and a thinking of your being misfit in the post.

Well , you appear better in feeding disinformation and misleading the senior officials in the DMER and in the secretariat. But this does not always work, it can also turn counterproductive when the true facts get exposed.

During the meeting, you hysterically referring to Dr. Mrs. Bharadwaj, whom I had neither met nor seen for the past four months. Again you were trying to put forth incorrect facts full of lies and lies only.

What you forgot is that you are a Public Servant and working in a public authority. You also forgot that BJMC and SGH is a government property and not anybody’s fiefdom. Hence, by virtue of being a Public Servant, you cannot ill treat or misbehave with any Citizen. No one cares of your political affiliations if any. In democracy, the writ of the Citizens is supreme. You forget that Public servants are meant to serve the Citizens, discharge their duties sincerely and honestly.

It was funny that you were reminding that you were the Dean. Don’t the people know that you were a Dean? Now, you were mindlessly telling that you write Demi Official letters to the Chief Secretary, Principal Secretary, Secretaries and they do not response, so why should you response to the letters of the Citizens. Well, this can be best replied by those to whom you write, but this is not applicable when you communicate with Citizens. The call of duty and courtesy is that the Citizens have to be responded. To say, that it is not, is just a mockery of the system in which you work. No sensible administrator would ever make this statement.

You must know that if Public Servants fail to discharge their duties, and try to scuttle the law of the country, just like what is happening in your institution, and if the government is not listening, the Citizens has the option to knock at the doors of judiciary to give the wake up call. I don’t care if you ignore letters written to you, when a large majority of senior government officials take note of it.

There are many more things that can be narrated, but here I would like to nail all lies, prove your incompetence, and bring to the attention of the Honorable Governor Mr. SC Jamir,, the Chief Minister Mr. Ashok Chavan, the Minister of Higher Technical and Medical Education, Mr. Rajesh Tope, the Medical Education Department’s principal secretary Mr. Bhushan Gagarani, veteran social worker Mr. Anna Hazare and all RTI activists and Citizens of the country as to how the RTI is being sabotaged and how guilty are protected by you. It will expose all your misinformation to the government officials. I now quote below:

1. Since past nine months, your office PIO has not provided complete information
relating to the illegal construction of ground floor building of SOFOSH. No building
plans, no approval, no information who constructed it, etc. I had gone in First
Appeal and was told by the PIO that there is no information on this in office
records. The PIO passed the buck on to the PWD, and there is no response.
I was informed in writing that the files were missing.

2. Another RTI application relating to the construction of new building of SOFOSH in
the hospital campus, I was told both by the PIO and AA that except for GR, all
other correspondence between the Dean and the government were not traceable
and files related to it are missing.

3. Though SOFOSH is operating from the hospital campus, the institution or the
Hospital has no records as files are missing about the number of children taken
for adoption from Sassoon General Hospital. The buck was passed on to SOFOSH
as their was no files or records available with the hospital. SOFOSH in a letter to
Sassoon PIO said that they are not aware of the numbers of children taken from
the hospital for adoption.

4. RTI filed on the illegal occupation of rooms in BJMC in other parts of the campus b
by a private Consumer Society. No documents, no records, are available with the
institution. In appeal, vague answers were given, and appellant was informed that
there is no files, and they are missing.

5. RTI filed in CET issue and no information was provided, instead the PIO made un
reasonable demand of fees to a tune of Rs. 8000 all for information that was not
sought at all. The PIO flattered wrongly in many ways, that can be proven that
attempts were made to harass by unreasonable demand, which the Dean is trying
wrongly to protect the PIO. This gives credence that the Dean is hand in gloves.

6. Verbal orders of the Information Commissioner have been shown contempt by the
Dean. The Info Commission always give verbal orders initially and decision are
sent later. The Dean failed to implement the orders. The Info Commissioner has
directed that info sought relating to government orders/government resolutions
relating to prisoners being admitted to special rooms be provided. Since April
this has not been given. No action has been taken on misleading, incorrect and
false information given by the PIO relating to this issue. Prisoners have been
admitted to Special rooms without Court orders.

7. The FAA and Dean despite finding the PIO guilty, did not move further than just
halting after given the PIO a show cause notice. Instead of moving further on
taking administrative action and recommending action, he had not done anything.
This exhibits the fishy role of the Dean.

8. Inspite of bringing to your attention several times in writing and verbally that FIR
should be filed for missing files and even after citing several decisions, no action is
taken to file the FIRs for the past several months.

These incidents are just the tip of the iceberg. There are several others documentary evidence to prove the Dean’s incompetency.

Now, Dr. Jamkar, how many things will you refute. All your lies will be exposed. You are doing a great dis-service both to the government and the Citizens by showing contempt to the RTI law and the IC orders. You are putting senior government officials in embarrassing situation.

Though I do not wish, but am compelled by the circumstances to tell the government to initiate a inquiry into all the issues that I have raised through RTI applications. All those found guilty should be punished.

Evidences will speak for itself as to how you have tried to protect and shield those responsible for scams and irregularities and how government had been put to loss.

Don’t threat the Citizens. Don’t mislead your senior officials and Don’t circulate disinformation, Dr. Jamkar. Enough is Enough. And mind well, I am not the one who will take any wrong things lightly. To serve the people is my mission and objective.
And finally please read the Preamble to the RTI Act. and specially the first para, That would be enough to understand the least for you.

Thanks and wish you all the best

Shahid Raza Burney

Letter to Maharashtra Chief Secretary on false allegation on RTI application

Letter to Maharashtra Chief Secretary on false allegations on RTI application by Dr. Arun Jamkar, Dean BJMC and Sassoon Hospital and Ganesh Bardare, PIO, BJMC
Pune, Friday, July 10, 2009
To:
Mr. Johny Joseph
Chief Secretary, Government of Maharashtra
Mumbai – 400 032
-------------------------------------------------

Dear Mr. Joseph, Greetings,

I would like to place this letter on record for the attention of the Chief Minister, Mr. Ashok Chavan, your goodself and Dr. Bhushan Gagrani, the Medical Education Department Secretary, relating to the contempt of the Right to Information Act 2005 by Dr. Arun Jamkar, the Dean of BJ Medical College and Sassoon General Hospital in Pune as also by Mr. Ganesh Baradare, the Chief Administrative Office, both the First Appellate Authority and State Public Information Officer.

As a senior journalist of 40 long years of standing in local, regional, national and international electronic and print media, I am shocked to learn about the baseless and unfounded allegations that both of these have leveled against me for the use of RTI during the visit of Dr. Gagrani to the institution and hospital today (10 July 2009).

In line with my long journalistic career, I would like to state here that several governors, chief ministers, state and central ministers, bureaucrats, police officers, local, regional and national level politicians, including several international leaders that have known me, can vouch of my blunt attitude. Not a single of these can believe that I had ever indulged in negative criticism. All throughout my career in India and abroad, I had always thought it a honor and pride to work for humanity and fight corruption. So, the allegations of the Dean Dr. Arun Jamkar to Dr. Gagrani that filing of my RTI applications was part of some kind of harassment, is totally fabricated, false and outright a charge that cannot be proven.

Sir, 40 years in my field has been a long journey. I had the honor to be the only Indian journalist to cover the Gulf War and be night and day on all the international TV networks and a constant face on the Larry King live show of CNN during the Gulf War. To accuse, a person with false allegations, which cannot be proven, against a person who has played a key role in the Maharashtra Right to Information Act 2002, is painful, particularly from Dr. Jamkar. Either he proves the charge, or he offers and unconditional apology.

Sir, many of the chief ministers including the late Shankarao Chavan, father of the present chief minister, Mr. Vilasrao Deshmukh, Mr. A.R. Antulay, etc, have been my personal and close friends. Several of the IAS officers, some retired as Chief Secretaries, and some presently serving in different posts as Additional Chief Secretaries, Principal Secretaries, Secretaries, Divisional Commissioners, Collectors, many of them being sons of my friends, can vouch of my credibility. Even more IPS officers like the present DGP Mr. SS Virk, former DGP, AN Roy, Mumbai police commissioner D.Shivandan, Additional Director General of Police State CID, Mr. SPS Yadav, are also the few among the many who will speak of my credibility and integrity.

Sir, Dr. Jamkar and his PIO, should first read the very first para of the preamble of the RTI Act. 2005. The very first paragraph of the preamble states that the law was made to usher in transparency and accountability in governance and to contain corruption. This very simple law is not understood till today by Dr. Jamkar and his staff though the law is now more than six years old.

Sir, my foremost objective to use the act is totally in line of serving the people to whom the law is a powerful weapon vested by the federal government. It is the Citizen’s right to seek information for which the law was made. The learned fails to understand that the rights given by the law to the people cannot be throttled, curbed or obstructed, which would defeat the very purpose for which it is ushered in for the people.

The RTI law has been very successfully used by bureaucrats in Maharashtra and in the country. A senior diplomat Ms. Bhaduri had used it when she was denied the post of the foreign secretary. Principal Secretary (GAD) of Maharashtra Ms. Leena Mehandale had used it against the Pune Municipal Corporation and has a blog site, Addl. Collector Prahlad Kachare has been using it, besides political leaders like Ramdas Kadam, Gopinath Munde and several others, not to speak of professors from the Government hospital, like from Aurangabad against its dean Dr. Anand Malik, who also served in Pune, and who was penalized by the Information Commission, by way of his pension being stopped. There are many cases, which I can cite.

But I am surprised at the way Dr. Jamkar and his team are trying to scuttle the attempts of RTI activists like me, Advocate Saleem Shaikh, noted activist Vihar Durve, and few from the hospital itself.

Sir, I had observed utmost restraint so far to speak out against the negative aspects of Dr. Jamkar and the CAO Mr. Ganesh Bardare. And I am sorry to state that both of them are a total misfit in their posts. These two are more of an liability than an asset to the institution and hospital. Their administrative skills exhibit their incompetence and expose their inability to provide a good administration.

I know that a senior NCP minister has been allergic to the Dean and did not want him posted back here. It is pathetic that Dr. Arun Jamkar should be posted back in Pune after serving here for more than 28 years, which is against the policy of the government as well against the spirits of ‘Maharashtra Government Servants Regulation of Transfers and Prevention of Delay in Discharge of Official Duties Act, 2005’’. I am not aware, but heard that Dr. Jamkar had managed to get back with the help of Dr. Wasudeo Tayade, the Director of DMER and with political help from the Chief Minister. If this is true, then this again defeats the purpose of the law for which social activist Anna Hazare had so aggressively worked hard.

Sir, despite rebuke from the Information Commission, Dr.Arun Jamkar and Bardare had been showing all contempt to the law. Several of my RTI applications have not been responded despite the verbal orders of the Commission to dispose it off. It has been merry go round for me on my applications filed as back as February 2009. Several of the decisions are just ‘funny’ which exhibits the non application of mind of both the FAA and the PIO, for which even the Commission has pulled them up.

Vague, evasive, misleading, incomplete, incorrect and false information is given in some cases. In a case relating to land to a NGO, the files are missing, as officially informed to me. Yet, despite several decisions by the CIC and SIC, that FIR should be lodged, the FAA and PIO are sitting on the issue, without taking any action. This attitude gives apprehensions that the Dean is trying to protect and shield those officials who were incharge of the files. If the government can take action on the missing files in the RTI issue raised by Opposition leader Ramdas Kadam or the UP government handing the case of missing files to the CBI in the Babri Masjid case, what had prevented the Dean from filing a case of missing files for the past six months?

Sir, my whole contention of filing RTI applications is to get to the roots of the several scams and scandals and financial irregularities that have taken place in the BJ Medical College and Sassoon Hospital. My purpose is also to go deep into the vast corruption that is prevailing here. The objective is to bring out the skeltons from the cupboard. It is rightly to demand transparency and accountability and to root out corruption.

The Dean should know well, that the institution and the hospital is public property and not the fiefdom of anybody. It belongs to the people and the state. Seeking information to dig out corruption and financial irregularities is not harassment. Public money is not for laundering.

Honorable minister for finance Mr. Dilip Walse-Patil, had earmarked several crores for the upgradation of the Sassoon Hospital, yet machines meant for the benefit of the people are gathering dust, and the crores going waste on these machines. Cold storage boxes in the Forensic medicine tendered for Blue Star has been faked and substandard cold storage boxes worth crores bunked in for which the original Blue Star is not willing to maintain. The funds for CET provided by the government has several financial irregularities. Action is not taken against the Deputy Supdt, for providing wrong, misleading and incorrect information despite the orders of the Commission. No action is taken against the Deputy Supdt, for unauthorizedly issuing age certificates despite being warned by the Deputy Secretary of the Medical Education Department.

Sir, in some of the cases cited above, and in the interest of the institution and the hospital, you can see, that Dr. Arun Jamkar had mislead and provided false information and made unproven allegations against me to Dr. Bhushan Gagrani, and this cannot be taken lightly. When I praise Dr. Jamkar, he likes it and when a healthy criticism is made, he jumps the gun and goes wild with allegations. His double standards attitude has created lots of confusion and unrest among the medical fraternity, the people, and in the politicians, not to speak of journalists.

In the interest of the maintaining harmony, and preventing any unrest, and for the sake of better administration and image of the government, institution, hospital and RTI law, I think it would be better if Dr. Arun Jamkar and the CAO Ganesh Bardare are moved out of Pune and some better people replace them.

Sir, last but not the least, if Dr. Jamkar does not apologize and put forth the truthful facts to you and Dr. Gagrani, then I would consider the option of filing a Writ in the Bombay High Court to protect my dignity and credibility.

Thanks and regards,
Shahid Raza Burney
Senior Journalist and
Founder Member Hum Janenge RTI Discussion Board,

Mumbai High Court fines Addl. Chef Secretary (Health) and Director Health

http://maharashtratimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/4760096.cms

अति. मुख्य सचिवांसह पाच अधिकाऱ्यांना ३५ हजाराचा दंड10 Jul 2009, 0026 hrs IST
तुरुंगातील एचआयव्ही व एड्सग्रस्त कैद्यांच्या स्थितीबद्दल तपशिल न देणे आणि 'म्हाडा'च्या घरांबद्दल दिशाभूल करणारी माहिती दिल्याने, या दोन प्रकरणांमध्ये गुरुवारी हायकोर्टाने अतिरिक्त मुख्य सचिवांचासह पाच सरकारी अधिकाऱ्यांना एकूण ३५ हजार रुपयांचा दंड ठोठावला.

या संदर्भात मुख्य न्या. स्वतंत्रकुमार व न्या. सत्यरंजन धर्माधिकारी यांच्या खंडपीठापुढे सुनावणी झाली, त्यावेळी संतप्त झालेल्या हायकोर्टाने वरील आदेश दिले.

यापैकी एचआयव्ही व एड्सग्रस्त कैद्यांच्या स्थितीविषयी हायकोर्टाकडे आलेल्या पत्राची दखल घेऊन ते जनहित याचिकेत रुपांतरित करण्यात आले होते. त्यानुसार वस्तुस्थिती व उपाय याची माहिती देणारा अहवाल द्यावा, असे आदेश कोर्टाने गेल्या सुनावणीत दिले होते. मात्र तो अहवाल सादर न केल्याने खंडपीठाने अतिरिक्त मुख्य सचिव ( आरोग्य), आरोग्य संचालक आणि तुरुंग महानिरीक्षक यांना प्रत्येकी पाच हजार रुपयांचा दंड कोर्टाने ठोठावला.

'म्हाडा' प्रकरणात अर्जदारांच्या म्हणण्यानुसार, बांधण्यात येणाऱ्या घरांच्या तळमजल्यावर व्यापारी गाळे असल्याने घरांची किंमत कमी करण्यात यावी. मात्र व्यापारी गाळे बांधण्याचा निर्णयच असल्याचे सांगण्याचा सरकारी वकिलांनी प्रयत्न केला. त्यावर 'म्हाडा' च्या माहितीपत्रकात मात्र तसा उल्लेख नसल्याचे अर्जदारातफेर् कोर्टाच्या निदर्शनाला आणण्यात आले असता कोर्टाने एम. ए. बशीर व एम . के. साठे या दोघा अधिकाऱ्यांना प्रत्येकी दहा हजार रुपयांचा दंड सुनावला. पाचही अधिकाऱ्यांनी स्वत:च्या खिशातून ही रक्कम द्यायची आहे.

SIC orders Disciplinary Action against Principal Secretary for RTI negligence

TIMES OF INDIA, 9th July 2009

SIC orders Disciplinary Action against Principal Secretary for RTI negligence

LUCKNOW: The State Information Commission (SIC) took a strict stand against the principal secretary of public enterprises department, Sunanda Prasad and ordered disciplinary action against her for not taking the provisions of the Right to Information (RTI) Act seriously.

The order passed by information commissioner, Gyanendra Sharma, in one of the recent judgments stated that the official invited disciplinary action against her for interfering in the work of the public information officer (PIO) of her department, for not taking her role of first appeals authority seriously and for violating the provisions of the Act. This is for the first time that commission has ordered disciplinary action against an IAS officer of the rank of principal secretary.

The case pertains to an RTI query made by an applicant, Rajeshwar Prasad, to the PIO of the department on January 21, 2007, about the appointment and pay scale of one of the employees of the department, Neerja Krishna. After applicant approached the commission, the department was asked to submit the entire details (files) on the action taken by the department on the query of the applicant.

The findings are shocking, the Act is three-years old in the state but even most of the higher level officials are ignorant about its existence... moreover, senior officials want to fail the system by way of which the Act is to be implemented, is the observation made by the commissioner in the order.

Operation Cover-up in Sassoon and Aundh Hospital

Honorable Chief Minister of Maharashtra
Mr. Ashok Chavan,

Dr. Rajesh Tope,
Minister of State for Medical Education, MS and

Dr. Bhushan Gagrani, IAS,
Principal Secretary, Medical Education Dept., MS

Dear Sir, Greetings,

Below is the story Operation Cover-up which speaks for itself the inhuman and pathetic conditons prevailing in the Sassoon and Aundh hospital. Its surprising that such and many other issues that reflect directly on the health of the Citizens have been ignored for ages at these two hospitals. The question now is when will the state government and the bureaucracy wake up? Please read the below feature article in Pune Mirror dated July 07, 2009.

Thanks and regards

http://www.punemirror.in/index.aspx?page=article§id=2&contentid=2009070720090707030757573c4a998d9§xslt&pageno=1

Operation Cover-up



25-yr-old pregnant woman is shunted from Aundh hospital to Sassoon. She delivers her son in an ambulance. When Pune Mirror tries to investigate, hospitals begin...

By Vijay Chavan
Posted On Tuesday, July 07, 2009 at 03:07:57 AM



Sujata Wakale (above) with her newborn son, and her hurriedly-prepared medical report (Below) without any signatures or stamps of the concerned authorities


Friday was supposed to be the happiest day of 25-year-old Sujata Manik Wakale’s life, but things took a turn for the worse on that day.

Pimple Nilakh resident Sujata, who was nine months pregnant when she got herself admitted to Aundh General Hospital on Friday, claims she ended up delivering her baby boy in an ambulance with only a hospital sweeper at her side — all because of the callous attitude of two city hospitals.

Sujata was accompanied by her sister to Aundh hospital. After her sister went out to fetch some medicines, Sujata went into labour around 8.30 pm.

Sensing that their shift was about to end, the on-duty doctors decided to shift Sujata to Sassoon General Hospital.

Sujata was sent to Sassoon by an ambulance, and she was accompanied by a lady hospital sweeper. Sujata’s misery didn’t end there.

On reaching Sassoon, she was told that she couldn’t be admitted as she had no relative accompanying her. That is how she ended up delivering her son in an ambulance. It was only after that was she taken back by Aundh hospital.

Aundh hospital’s emergency cover-op
When this reporter turned up at Aundh hospital and enquired with the resident medical officer Dr N G Bhosle, a cover-up operation commenced.

Reports documenting Sujata’s ill-health prior to her delivery were hurriedly assembled, without signatures of concerned doctors or medical officers, and handed over to this reporter.

Inquiry on: hospital
Dr M C Nagare, in-charge of Aundh hospital, said, “We have begun an inquiry into the issue. If any irregularity or negligence is detected, the concerned doctors will definitely be suspended.”

The delivery
Sujata said, “My pain started around 8.30 pm. Then two lady doctors came to examine me. After a few minutes, they advised me to go to Sassoon Hospital.

They asked a lady sweeper who works in the gynaecology ward to accompany me. When we reached Sassoon hospital around 9.30 pm, the doctors there asked if I had brought any relatives with me.

The sweeper refused to stay by my side. In the absence of relatives, the doctors there refused to treat me. I had no option but to return.

“On the way back, around 10 pm, the pain became unbearable and I delivered during the commute, in the vehicle. The sweeper lady took care of me. I was then taken back into Aundh hospital,” Sujata added.

Well equipped, but not so inclinedDr M C Nagare, gynaecologist at Aundh hospital, said, “The hospital has all the necessary equipment to take care of patients.

But if she was sent to Sassoon, the matter must have been serious.” Dr Nagare then directed this reported to talk to Dr Bhosle.

At that time, Bhosle was not in the hospital, and arrived only an hour later. The medical reports that Dr Bhosle showed to this reporter mentioned ‘anaemia and some ECG changes’.

But these reports lacked laboratory stamps and signatures of concerned medical officer on duty. It’s clear that the report was ‘prepared’ at the last moment.

Sassoon hospital’s version
Dr P S Pawar, superintendent of Sassoon hospital, said, “According to our records, a woman had sought admission in our hospital on Friday night.

But she was never denied admission. Any woman who comes in with labour pain has to be admitted even if relatives are absent.

Allegations made by Aundh hospital are baseless. At least 25 delivery cases are registered in our hospital every day. Either the patient refused to get admitted or the woman accompanying her refused to give her company.”

This incident raised the following points
Dr Nagare claims Aundh hospital is well-equipped. If that’s the case, why was Sujata shunted to Sassoon hospital just because of anaemia and minor ECG changes?


The time when Sujata was asked to move to Sassoon hospital coincided with the end of duties for the two lady doctors attending to her. Despite being women themselves, they didn’t seem too keen to take her responsibility after the end of their shift


Ideally, the hospital administration should have sent a nurse or a doctor to accompany Sujata as it was an emergency. But instead, a sweeper was sent with her


Despite knowing that Sassoon hospital won’t accept patients without relatives by their side, why did Aundh hospital authorities send Sujata without somebody in a position of authority by her side?

It seems the government scheme, Janani Suraksha Abhiyan, is not applicable in the government-run Aundh hospital as Sujata claimed to have been harassed for payment of her dues amounting to Rs 350. Hospital authorities allegedly threatened her that they won’t discharge her until she paid her dues


Sujata’s delivery was normal and her baby’s health is fine. There is no mention of any complication in her post-delivery reports