NHRC notice to UP govt over botched cataract surgeries at private hospital
New Delhi (PTI): The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued a notice to the Uttar Pradesh government over alleged negligence of a private hospital in Kanpur that botched up cataract surgeries of six patients who ended up losing their eyesight.
The NHRC said it has taken suo motu cognizance of media reports about the incident. Reportedly, the patients were told that the eye surgeries were being done at a free camp but were charged Rs 1,500 each.
The Commission has observed that the contents of media reports, if true, amount to human rights violations of the victims.
Accordingly, it has issued notices to the chief secretary and the director general of police of Uttar Pradesh, calling for a detailed report in the matter, including the status of the FIR registered in connection with the incident and relief/compensation, if any, provided to the victims.
The Commission has also sought details about the steps taken and proposed to be taken by the state government to ensure that such painful incidents do not recur.
The report must also contain whether the hospital had obtained prior approval from the district authorities before holding a free eye surgery camp. The response from the authorities is expected within four weeks, the Commission said in a statement.
According to media reports, the cataract surgeries were performed at a camp between November 2 and November 4.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
