Digvijay Singh demands Chhattisgarh Health Minister's resignation

Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh today said sub-standard antibiotics and equipment were to blame for the death of 13 women during a sterilisation drive in Bilaspur and demanded that Chhattisgarh Health Minister Amar Agrawal should quit.

"It is not a case of bad surgeries, but use of inferior quality medicines and equipment that the government had purchased under the Centre's National Rural Health Mission," he said here.

"A thing costing one rupee has been purchased for Rs two and that is the level of corruption in the programme." The BJP government in the state had no courage to arrest the drug manufacturers and arrested only a few directors, Singh said, demanding that the health minister should resign.

As many as 13 have so far women died after undergoing surgeries at various sterilisation camps held under the National Family Planning programme in Bilaspur, which incidentally is state Health minister Agrawal's home district.