MP: Win a Nano by sending 500 people to sterilisation camp!

, March 18: Want to buy a car? It's easy. Arrange 500 people for a sterlisation camp and take home a brand-new Tata Nano car. This is allegedly happening in some parts of

, said a news report.

Promises of gold and refrigerators as prize are also being made if one can arrange for 50 or 25 people, respectively.

Government functionaries and middlemen have allegedly been given the task to bring more people for vasectomy and tubectomy. Allegations are made that unmarried, mentally challenged and poor people are being forced to go to these camps.

Sources in a local NGO said that officials are threatening the helpless victims that their BPL cards and other government facilities will be scrapped if they do not sign up for the operations. The poor tribals and Dalits are finding it extremely difficult to withstand the pressure for they often fail to seek legal help.

A senior government doctor said on the condition of anonymity that Baiga tribals were recentlt sterilised in district hospitals in Dindori and Shahdol but the issue was covered up. Three women reportedly died in a sterilisation camp this January but it did not attain any attention. It is said that tribals from Bawani, Khargone and Jhabua are lining up at sterilisation camps.

Doctors have also been accused of turning butchers and increasing the number of surgeries. While norms say a doctor is likely to do 30-50 surgeries a day, some in Indore and Malwa are claiming to have undertaken 500 operations daily!

Although a top official of the state health services said such reports were without basis, some sources said on the condition of anonymity that the hospitals are clearly overdoing to achieve their targets by March 31. The incentives like car and gold are not without any reason, said a doctor.

OneIndia News