It is the lure of lucre which forced the administration of BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur to hold back the payment of over Rs 68 lakh of an oxygen gas firm which resulted in unfortunate death of 69 children in the children’s ward of the hospital in last one week.
Sources claim that payment to the company supplying oxygen was delayed because hospital has asked for more commission to clear payments.
The lucknow based Pushpa Sales Pvt ltd had repeatedly written letters to the hospital administration to clear its dues of Rs 68 lakh but the same was not cleared as hospital was asking for more commissions this years as compared to last year.
A senior official of the company told this reporter that there was an unwritten understanding that company will pay 10 per cent commission of the total cost. But this year the hospital administration was asking for 12 per cent commission.
“This was a huge amount which we refused to part with. Our argument is that as we are paying 10 per cent commission at every payment there was not need to increase it. We even argued that during monsoon number of encephalitis cases goes up. This means more supply of liquid oxygen tanks and indirectly the officials will earn more,” the officer said on condition of anonymity for obvious reasons.
As the payments were delayed the company wrote letter District Magistrate, Gorakhpur on June 3 with a request to clear dues at the earliest. Sources say DM had spoken to the Hospital administration about but the Principal claimed to have assured DM that he would manage.
The company had also written a letter to DG Health on April 12 when the due was Rs 55 lakh. A legal notice was also served to BRD College on July 30 but the hospital administration did not get reply.
In a press conference Medical education Minister Ashutosh Tandon confirmed that arrear of Pushpa Sales has gone up to Rs 68. 65 lakh and questioned as why the Hospital did not made the payment when DG Health had sent Rs 4 crore to the BRD Medical college but he did not say that company had also written a letter to him – which he did not reply .
“We wrote around a dozen letters to hospital administration as well as other officials and government in last six months but the payments were not cleared because we refused ti pay 12 per cent commission,” the official said.
The BRD Medical college its own oxygen plant which has 12,000 liter tank. On an average the hospital required 8000 liter oxygen per week. One time supply costs hospital Rs 2.5 lakh