1,158 kids died at a Chhattisgarh hospital in a year

Raipur, June 20 (UNI) Former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi today alleged that the deaths of 1,158 children were reported within a year apparently due to poor hygiene at Raigarh's state-run district hospital.

Talking to reporters here, he said that the matter came to light after hospital records revealed 59 such fatalities in a month. ''Lack of proper hygiene and non-availability of facilities could be the reasons,'' he said, adding that the situation indicated that the state's health services were on the verge of collapse.

Despite such ''alarming'' figures, the government and health authorities ''turned Nelson's eye on the problem as no action was taken'' to identify the cause. Mr Jogi alleged that the regime was making tall claims, through newspaper ads, about steps taken to improve health services but all these ''achievements'' were on paper.

He took exception to the government's much-publicised Nirdhan Kanya Vivah Yojana, a scheme to provide financial assistance for marriage of women belonging to impoverished families, saying that the scheme's name was improper.

''In Hindu culture, girls are considered equivalent to Goddess Lakshmi and it is not proper to term them as 'nirdhan', which literally means sans wealth,'' he said and urged the government to change the name.

UNI