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Bihar minister beats up hospital ward attendant

Our Correspondent in Patna

Employees of the Patna medical college hospital went on a wild cat strike on Thursday following the beating up of a ward attendant, Umesh Rai, by Minister of State for Higher Education Ram Das Rai and his security guards.

They want his immediate removal from the Rabri Devi cabinet and burnt his effigy on Friday.

Umesh Rai said that he was beaten because he prevented more than one person from entering the emergency ward.

Hospital superintendent Dr D K Raman said that the incident took place in his presence and that the minister was in a very foul mood.

The minister had beaten up Dr Raman's predecessor Dr Ashok Kumar Paswan sometime back.

The minister was in the hospital to see a close relative. He said that he had come to hospital on Thursday morning because some criminal elements had assaulted his relative Vishwanath Singh, a retired district judge, while he was trying to arrange blood for his ailing brother.

However, Dr Raman said the minister was in his (Raman's) chamber when somebody came to him stating that the ward attendant was not allowing him to enter the emergency ward.

Upon this the infuriated minister and his security guards rushed towards Umesh Rai and snatched his lathi to assault him.

One of the employees told rediff.com that the minister even ordered his security guard to shoot Umesh Rai.

Umesh rushed to the chamber of the deputy superintendent of hospital, Dr Siyaram Payasa, who intervened to save him.

The minister conceded that he snatched the lathi from the attendant, but denied that he hit him. He blamed the hospital superintendent and some doctors for the presence of criminal elements on the hospital campus.

Many agree that lumpen elements roam freely on the campus of the most prestigious hospital in the state and some of the employees are in league with them. Yet hospital employees deny that criminals were anyway involved in this particular case.

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