Pratibha trip raises dust OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT Bhopal, June 29: Controversy has been Pratibha Patil’s companion during her four-day tour of Madhya Pradesh.
Yesterday, she left herself open to accusations of protocol breach when she made an unscheduled visit to brother Ranjit Singh Patil’s home in Ujjain.
But that, as local BJP and Congress leaders said, turned out to be the most inconsequential imprudence during her stay in the state.
She then went to Indore to inaugurate a private eye hospital, Choithram Netralaya, a subsidiary of Choithram Hospital Trust that is under the scanner for illegally removing patients’ kidneys and evading taxes.
The kidney racket, which involves an interstate gang spread across Chennai, Ahmedabad and Coimbatore, was busted on Friday, just before Pratibha’s visit, in Ujjain, around 50km from Indore town.
Ujjain police chief Manmeet Singh Narang said teams had been sent to Ahmedabad and Chennai but spoke only of “a hospital in Indore under the scanner”.
Choithram Hospital’s chief medical officer R. Mehta denied the allegations. “Our hospital is not involved. We believe in the highest standards of medical ethics.”
He acknowledged a complaint had been filed but said it “didn’t mean anything”.
Indore authorities claimed Choithram Trust, which runs several schools and hospitals, had also not paid taxes of Rs 2.28 crore. Collector Rakesh Shrivastava said the President’s office had been informed about the controversies.
RE:more on the scamster prez!
by birju on Jul 01, 2008 09:40 PM Permalink
said the President’s office had been informed about the controversies.
Today, Pratibha inaugurated the People’s Centre for Scientific Research and Development, a private entity that runs a chain of hospitals and institutes about which an “adverse report” had been sent to Rashtrapati Bhavan.
State home secretary Sanjay Rana said sending such reports prior to VVIP visits was standard practice. People’s centre public relations officer Anil Khanna, however, insisted no such report was sought or sent.
That wasn’t all. Later today, members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the BJP’s youth wing, braved rain to protest against the President’s inauguration of an “illegal” building of the Bhoj Open University. The structure is said to have come up against civic norms.
