In a major relief to thousands of victims of 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy, MP Government on Wednesday rolled back an earlier decision of notifying Bhopal Memorial Hospital and Research Centre (BMHRC) as reserved hospital for covid19 patients.
This decision came after massive resentment from gas victims and one of the organisations, Bhopal Group for Action and Information moving high court on the said decision early on Wednesday.
Following lockdown ordered on March 24, the MP government had issued orders reserving BMHRC only for covid19 patients and all the gas affected patients were removed from the hospital immediately including those critically ill who were shifted to other hospitals.Faiz Ahmed KIdwai, Commissioner Health department on Wednesday evening issued an order rolling back earlier orders and reinstating BMHRC’s earlier status.
The order added that the hospital would only be used for testing samples of covdi19 suspects. Early in the day, treating the petition as urgent matter, the HC had taken up immediate hearing and served notices to Centre and state.
The gas victims’ organiations had alleged that converting the BMHRC into covdi19 patients could endanger lives of thousands of gas victims.
“Gas victims hope the OPD and emergency services of BMHRC would be restored from Thursday onwards,” said Rachna Dhingra of BGAI.
She underlined the fact that four gas victims died for lack of treatment after BMHRC was taken over by the district administration post March 24 and added five others who died of corona also were gas affected people.