To present a perfect picture of PGIMER to Union Health Minister J P Nadda, officials have shooed away poor patients and their attendants who had been staying in the open parks of the institute.
They have been asked to vacate the area and to go back home as some VVIPs are coming.
On Saturday, Nadda will visit PGI to chair the Institute Body’s meeting and, on Friday, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar is coming to inaugurate a blood donation camp.
The PGI authorities have ordered the security guards to vacate the parks and empty spaces, especially near the entrance.
Thousands of patients come to PGI every year from far-off places for treatment, and many of them stay back because they are called for regular check-ups, and they are too poor to afford frequent travel.
In the absence of adequate shelter, the patients and attendants stay in the parks, even sleep there. All of them have now been asked to go away.
Among them is 35-year-old Pushpa from Sirsa who had been staying here since July 2014 when she underwent a hip replacement surgery.
“I cannot walk. Every week, the doctors ask for one or the other test, hence I cannot go home. I had been staying under the trees in the park near gate number 1, but three days ago, the security guards asked me to move out,” said Pushpa.
She added, “They told us to vacate the parks and, if possible, the institute, and to go back home. But how can I go when I am still undergoing treatment?”
“They say that some VVIPs are coming and because of their security, the parks are being vacated. I wonder how a poor patient living in vulnerable conditions can be a threat to a minister,” said one of the attendants.
The patients and attendants complain that they have also been asked not to take the langar food in plastic plates inside the premises.
Manju Wadwalkar, PGI’s Public Relations Officer, said, “Genuine patients have been shifted to the gurdwara, and the Rain Basera near the Advanced Trauma Centre. Only those people who were not undergoing treatment in PGI and were thriving on free food have been asked to leave.”
Source : Expressnews
