Hospital rents 20 coolers for CM Yogi Adityanath visit; removes them thereafter

Allahabad: While CM Yogi Adityanath has been seen making amply clear that no special arrangements are to be made for his visits, officials of a particular Allahabad Hospital were allegedly seen doing exactly the opposite, making a special albeit temporary arrangements for the CM's Visit

Around 20 air coolers were reportedly hired for the Chief Minister's visit to the Swaroop Rani Nehru hospital in Allahabad on Sunday. Adityanath inspected the bone disease department, and for patients there, it meant a break - however fleeting - from the oppressive heat. Right after the Chief Minister left, the coolers were gone. The sight of the coolers being carted away in rickshaws was caught on camera by a local photographer.

The news soon went viral, with media initiating its own inquiry about the event. Inquiries by journalists revealed that the air coolers were hired from a local tent house reports NDTV.

"Because he came, we got air coolers for a bit and we could relax. The coolers came in on Saturday. It must have been to please Yogi Adityanath," said the relative of a patient admitted at the hospital told the daily adding . in the extreme heat, air coolers are "not a luxury but a necessity".

Hospital authorities were quick to deny renting any coolers for the purpose of the visit. "We have about 75 to 80 coolers in the hospital. They are deployed in wards. Yesterday, just one or two coolers were not working and the technician in-charge of making arrangements for the chief minister's visit offered to replace them. So we said yes. It is not true that we brought in over 20 coolers. I don't know what the patients are saying, really, but it is not true," said Dr Karunakar Dwivedi, Chief Medical Superintendent of the Hospital.

Report Ordered

Retorting to the reports of 20 air coolers being rented by a Allahabad hospital for Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's visit, state health minister Siddharth Nath Singh dubbed the incident as insensitive and said that he has sought reports in the matter, while adding that he will make sure that such incidents do not occur in the future.

Singh said that there are challenges but the newly-elected Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Government will leave no stone unturned in combating such shortcomings.

"Well the Allahabad incident where coolers were replaced after CM left the hospital came to light this morning. Immediately I asked the CMO and the DM to submit me the report but what I have understood is that the coolers were non functional, so they brought coolers on rent and then changed them post CM's visit," said Singh.

"This is very unfortunate and should not have happened. This shows how insensitive the system has become and this is the challenge we are facing but certainly we will overcome this challenge and for this incident since I have asked for the report we will be making people accountable and amend things, so that in future such incidents don't happen," he added.