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Gurdaspur eye camp tragedy: Accused doctor arrested, NHRC seeks report from Punjab govt

Dr Vivek Arora, the private doctor who had allegedly performed cataract surgery on several people leaving 60 of them blind, was arrested on Friday and a case was also registered against a private hospital and a Mathura-based NGO which had organised the camp in Gurdasapur's Ghuman village.

Chandigarh: Dr Vivek Arora, the private doctor who had allegedly performed cataract surgery on several people leaving 60 of them blind, was arrested on Friday and a case was also registered against a private hospital and a Mathura-based NGO which had organised the camp in Gurdasapur's Ghuman village.

Gurdaspur Deputy Commissioner Abhinav Trikha informed that while Dr Vivek Arora was been booked and arrested, camp organiser Manjit Singh too has been detained in this connection.

National Human Rights Commission too sought reports from the Punjab government and Gurdaspur district administration over botched surgeries.

The NCW has issued notices to the Chief Secretary, Government of Punjab, Secretary, Health and District Magistrate, Gurdaspur calling for reports within two weeks.

The Union government has also sought a report from the Punjab government over the tragedy.

Health Minister JP Nadda said, "We have asked for a report from the Punjab government. But as we have been told that the operations were done by some NGO and it did not have the permission from the state government, we are finding out the details of it." 

Earlier, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal ordered a high level probe into the mishap.

Badal has asked Principal Secretary Health Vinnie Mahajan to personally conduct an inquiry into all the aspects of this unfortunate incident, an official spokesman said here.

He has also directed Mahajan to rush to the site for an on spot assessment of the tragedy and for supervising and expediting relief to the victims and their families.

The Chief Minister has also announced an interim relief of Rs 1 lakh to each of the affected families, whose members have lost eyesight in the tragedy.

Announcing free medical treatment for all the victims of the tragedy, Badal has directed that all the patients should be re-examined for fresh treatment at the government level.

Reports from Amritsar had said yesterday that at least 60 persons lost their eyesight after an operation at an eye camp organised by an NGO in Gurdaspur district.

While 16 persons belonged to villages of Amritsar the rest were from Gurdaspur district. All of them were admitted in city ENT hospitals of Amritsar and Gursdaspur.

Civil Surgeon Amritsar, Rajiv Bhalla, had said all the patients were operated at an eye camp in Ghuman village of Gurdaspur district around ten days ago.

The incident emerged when all the 16 patients, who belonged to Amritsar, approached Deputy Commissioner Bhagat to lodge a complaint against the NGO and doctors concerned.

The cataract surgery in the eye camp was performed under "severe unhygienic condition" whereupon eyes of all the 60 patients were found damaged permanently, Bhalla had said.

Before organising the eye camp, mandatory permission was required from the district Administration and Civil Surgeons of Gurdaspur and Amritsar but all the norms were not followed, he had said.

All the affected patients were above the age of 60 with poor economical condition.  

With Agency Inputs

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