Team Herald
PANJIM: Congress on Monday filed a formal complaint at Agacaim police station against Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant and Health Minister Vishwajit Rane over deaths of COVID-19 patients in Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMC), Bambolim due to mismanagement and lack of oxygen supply.
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In the complaint, Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) president Girish Chodankar stated that Sawant and Rane are responsible for the death of hundreds of people in GMC due to lack of oxygen because of the intentional, rash and negligent act on their part which amounts to culpable homicide and thereby committed the offences under Section 302, 304, 337 and 338 read with 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860.
Chodankar pointed out that despite Goa Association of Resident Doctors (GARD) flagging the oxygen shortage, the government failed to rectify the deficiencies and on the contrary the government officials after 15 days admit that deaths are taking place in GMC due to logistical issue in supply of oxygen.
“Because of this rash and negligent act of the Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and Health Minister Vishwajit Rane, hundreds of patients who were admitted in this hospital died due to lack of oxygen supply to the patients since April 2021 till date. The hospital was not having sufficient quantity of oxygen cylinders and therefore patients expired as they could not get any oxygen. This is nothing but the cruel death which the patients have met due to the rash and negligent act of the Chief Minister and the Health Minister of Goa,” states the complaint.
The GPCC president referring to the statement made by Rane that “the deaths have occurred between 2 am to 6 am on daily basis”, pointed further that despite knowing there was interruption in supply of oxygen during the dark hours, Rane and the government headed by Sawant did nothing to address the issue and patients continued to die.
“The public at large in Goa were looking at the Chief Minister and the Health Minister and were expecting that they will with full heart support them in such critical condition, but to the contrary due to the reasons best known to them they have committed these heinous offences resulting in the death of large number of patients suffering from COVID-19 and for this inexcusable act they should be severely punished,” Chodankar demanded.
Later, Chodankar told the media that the complaint is not politically motivated but lodged in public interest. “We want to fight for innocents people who lost life due to fault of the Chief Minister and the Health Minister and we want to give justice affected families,” he said.
