TUESDAY, MAY 07, 2024
Team Herald
PANJIM: The Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) will file a criminal case against Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant and Health Minister Vishwajit Rane over deaths of COVID-19 positive patients in the Goa Medical College and Hospital, Bambolim, due to shortage of oxygen.
GPCC President Girish Chodankar on Friday said that over 400 deaths in the last two weeks at Goa’s premier healthcare facility between the “dark hours of 2 am and 6 am” and clear-cut admission by the BJP government before the High Court of Bombay at Goa that 41 deaths occurred due to shortage of oxygen in the GMC, smacks of criminal negligence and inhuman conduct.
Girish stated that the candid admission that there is a substantial deficit of oxygen supply by the State government shows that it is irresponsible, insensitive and run by an incompetent and defective Chief Minister Sawant and Health Minister Rane. It is tragic that so many innocent lives were lost just because of a tussle between Sawant and Rane over alleged corruption at a time of monumental health crisis.
Girish charged that the patients dying due to insufficient supply of oxygen is nothing but cold-blooded murder of COVID-19 patients by the Chief Minister and the Health Minister. "If Health Minister admits on camera that he was aware that patients were dying between 2 am and 6 am on a daily basis and that the death toll in Goa would be around 200-300 per day, why did he not act upon it and ensure that such a calamity is averted. What action had the Chief Minister and the Health Minister specifically taken to stop COVID-19 deaths regularly between 2 am and 6 am?," Girish questioned.
“What the duo (Pramod Sawant and Vishwajit Rane) has committed is more horrific than genocide. They overlooked these deaths on a regular interval and deserve treatment only fit for the criminals," he said.
“We hope the High Court will order an impartial inquiry by a retired High Court Judge to ascertain the truth,” he said.
Girish stated that the BJP Government in Goa has made "Business from Peoples Sickness" since the COVID pandemic outbreak in India which Prime Minister Narendra Modi calls “Aapda mein avsar” (opportunity in crisis).
