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Sterilisation Deaths: Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh orders judicial probe, says no culprits will be spared

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A day after 13 women died and 49 others were hospitalised after botched sterilisation procedure at a state-run camp in Bilaspur district, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh on Thursday ordered judicial probe into the matter.

Speaking to media, Raman Singh said, "We have decided to hold a judicial inquiry. Resignation is not the solution to the problem and nobody will be protected."

He further added, "All patients are being monitored constantly,our priority is to provide best medical assistance."

The doctor whose sterilisation of 83 women in less than three hours said that operations were his moral responsibility and blamed adulterated medicines for the tragedy.

Dr RK Gupta, who says he has conducted more than 50,000 such operations, denied that his equipment was rusty or dirty and said it was the government's duty to control the number of people that turned up at his family-planning "camp".

"It is up to the administration to decide how many women would be kept for operation," a visibly upset Gupta said from the police station where he is being held in custody. He faces charges of causing death by negligence.

"If they kept in that place 83 women, it is my moral responsibility to operate (on) all the women. If I decline to do that I would have faced public agitation," said Gupta, who was awarded a state honour 10 years ago for his sterilisation work.

"I am not the culprit. I have been made scapegoat. It is the administration which is responsible for this incident," he said, speaking in a dimly lit police hostel room after being taken into custody from a friend's house on Wednesday night.

The government of Chhattisgarh states, banned five batches of drugs and a batch of surgical cotton wool on Wednesday pending further investigations. The anned medicines include Indian-made brands of ciprofloxacin and ibuprofen and were used in Gupta's sterilisation camp, a government statement said.

Even the women who were discharged post the operation, were diagnosed with blood loss and infection, with no proper follow-up being administered after the camp.

The state government initially announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh to the next of kin of each of the victims, but the Chief Minister raised it to Rs 4 lakh, while Rs 50,000 would be given to those undergoing treatment, the cost of which will be borne by the government.

The women and their families, were reportedly paid an amount of 1,400 rupees, to enroll themselves in the camp, and as things stand it would probably take a long time if the people involved in this current fiasco, would be taken to task and justice. For the record, 1,434 people have died from such sterilisation camps in India, between 2003 and 2012.

(With agency inputs)

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