Six weeks after undergoing botched eye surgeries at a camp at Ghuman in Gurdaspur, many of the 37 victims are yet to receive the Rs. 1-lakh compensation announced by the Punjab government. Even the accused remain at large.
Thirty-five victims lost sight in one eye and two their full vision. At the Government Eye and ENT Hospital on Majitha Road here, the patience of six of the victims is wearing thin. They still face pain and watery eyes, apart from the loss of sight.
Balveer Kaur of Sufian village, who lost sight in the left eye after undergoing a cataract surgery on November 4, says doctors from Delhi and Chandigarh had visited her, but it did not help. “My mother has still not received the compensation,” her daughter Gurjeet Kaur says.
Rakhi of Pakhlo Kitali Sahib in Gurdaspur, another victim, says she too has not got any compensation. Balbir Kaur of Phattupur in Gurdaspur has the same complaint.
Though Sampooran Kaur, Baldev Singh and Shivinder Kaur are among the lucky few who got the money, they say it barely covered the treatment expenses in private hospitals before they were shifted here.
A senior doctor at the hospital says the compensation has been delayed not because funds have not been released. “Cheques have been issued to most of the 25 persons who have already been discharged. There were spelling mistakes in some, and that is why some patients have not got them,” he says. Deputy Commissioner, Amritsar, Ravi Bhagat said Rs. 37 lakh had been received for payment of compensation, and all 37 victims would get the money.
Senior Superintendent of Police, Batala, Inderbir Singh told The Hindu that Vivek Arora of Jalandhar, who conducted the operations, was named in the first information report. “But he has not been arrested because the Supreme Court has directed that a panel of doctors be formed to establish the guilt of the medical staff.” But the team has not been formed yet.
