 |
Kathmandu Tuesday May 29, 2001 Jestha 16, 2058.
|
Second
day of shutdown leads to death of 2 patients
Post Report
KATHMANDU, May 28 – Sixty-year-old Bagedi Shah of
Birgunj Sub-metropolitan City and Shankar Chaudhari of a remote Bikuwagadhi VDC in Parsa
district, died because they could not be taken to the hospital in time due to the ongoing
nation-wide strike.
Mukhal Shah, son of deceased Shah said, they failed to rush
him to the hospital on time as the public transportation stayed off the road and about
half a dozens of ambulance services in Birgunj failed to provide service citing various
"technical problems."
"At the end, we had to carry him on the back…but
it was too late before we reached the hospital," said Shah. He informed that his
father had a complain of terrible stomach-ache.
The three-day strike, called by six left parties demanding
the Prime Minister’s resignation badly hit the patients all around the capital city
in the two consecutive days.
Relatives of Choudhary also said that they lost him because
of the strike. "We also tried ambulances but non of them agreed to come to pick the
patient so we had to manage a bullock-cart to take him to town," said Kabikanta
Choudhary, Chairman of the Bikhuwagadi VDC. Choudhary died on the way to hospital at Milan
Chowk.
The unprecedented three-day long strike has also seriously
impacted the patients and ongoing examinations of the students in the capital and other
parts of the country.
The biggest state-owned health institution of the country,
Bir Hospital recorded only 41 patients in the emergency ward, which used to have around
300 patients each day on normal time. "Obviously, the patients could not reach the
hospital because of the strike," said a hospital staff.
Similarly, only 67 patients went to the emergency ward of
the Tribhuwan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH) against average 100 patients on normal
days.
The relatives of the patients said that they faced
unprecedented difficulties to get their patients to the hospital as the public
transportation system remained completely paralysed due to strike called by six left
parties. Six left parties, including the main opposition Communist Party of Nepal-Unified
Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) have called three-day nation-wide strike starting May 27 to
pull down Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala for his alleged role in controversial Lauda
Air deal.
Ram Sundar Sujakhu of Bhaktapur Municipality had to walk
all the 13 kilometres distance to see his friend’s 9-year-old son Sandesh Deshemaru,
who was brought to Bir Hospital in an ambulance Monday morning. Deshemaru had head
injuries the previous night.
Meanwhile, TUTH has condemned the attack on Dr Suman Amatya
and other health staffs by the cadres of the left parties, while the medical staffs were
on way to hospital Sunday.
Nepal Medical Association has also issued a press release
condemning the attack. "Even during the war, health service staffs are spared from
such attacks," the release says.
The strike came as yet another blow to the 30, 000 schools
and 700 higher secondary schools some of them undergoing examinations while most were
battling to complete their syllabuses.
Hardly had the children started going to schools after a
week-long bandh of over 8000 private schools in the country called by the All Nepal
National Free Students’ Union, revolutionary (ANNFSU-R).
"This is the first time in Nepal that bandhs have so
enormously impacted the exams," said Dr Tirtha Khania, expert in Education.
Besides thousands of hours lost by the students recently,
the bandh has brought a serious impact on their examinations. Speaking to The Kathmandu
Post, Bhim Sapkota, Principal of Adarsha Soul Higher Secondary School (+2) at Lalitpur
said that his students appearing for their first year IA examinations were seriously
disturbed.
Students of Adarsha Soul Higher Secondary School had to
walk from Champi to Mangalbazar to write their exams that started at 7 in the morning.
"Who would understand their difficulties when they have to walk 2 hours from Champi
to Mangalbazar on foot?" asked Sapkota.
A group of five to six student-supporters of the bandh
broke into the Adarsha Kanya School on Sunday and forced around 30 teachers to stop
evaluating the SLC answer papers, sources close to the office reported today.
Other Stories
|
