Mental asylum in Madhepura closed following controversies

Madhepura, June 21 (UNI) A 'mental asylum,' run by a quack for the last several years, was closed by the district administration yesterday following reports that the hospital was running 'illegally and clandestinely'.

The mental hospital at Murkahi village under Shankarpur police station was being run by a quack, Mahadev Prasad Yadav, who was recently elected as the Mukhiya.

Bihar Health Minister Chandramohan Rai today said the Chief Medical Officer-cum-civil surgeon of Madhepura, Dr Devendra Kumar, had investgated the matter and it was found that the asylum was being run,'' illegally and clandestinely''. He said the state government had declared the asylum as illegal after receiving a report by the civil surgeon.

Following declaration of mental asylum as illegal, the state government yesterday ordered District Magistrate Hem Chand Jha to seal the asylum immediately. After an FIR was registered against the quack in the police station concerned, the district administration of Madheppura locked the asylum yesterday.

Mr Jha said Dr Kumar was asked to investigate the matter following directive from the state government. ''Following the report of the civil surgeon, the asylum was sealed yesterday,'' Mr Jha added.

Earlier, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had ordered an inquiry into the matter following a report about existence of such a kind of asylum in Madhepura.

Yadav used to offer medical consultation to the intellectually challenged and admit some of them as per their requirements. People of the area and from distant places used to come to the asylum to seek treatment. However, the controversy gathered momentum after the accused decided to contest elections for the post of the Mukhiya during the just concluded Panchayat polls.

After the controversies, an FIR was filed in Shankarpur police station in this regard.

Interestingly, the 'doctor' who claims to have treated many mentally challenged patients by his so called 'divine power' and herbal medicines, has no formal degree in medicine.

The mental asylum has about 30-40 occupants. The critical ones are chained and made to sleep on floor under a tin roof, while others with lesser degree of affliction, are allowed to stay in thatched huts while the still better ones get cots to sleep. The two square meals, the patients get come in the form of community meals but even as they eat or attend the natures call, they are in chains.

Meanwhile, the Indian Medical Association(IMA) has demanded arrest of the quack who has been running the mental hospital in an unlawful way for the past 40 years.

UNI XC-RS MP AK KP1912