In a bid to curb hooliganism on hospital premises, a clean-up drive was conducted inside Medical College and Hospital (MCH) on Saturday. Scores of people illegally staying at the hospital were flushed out.

“Apart from demolishing several illegal structures, we drove out more than 100 people who were staying on the campus illegally. Many of them are drug addicts and involved in criminal activities,” A. Biswas, deputy superintendent of MCH, said.

The two-hour operation, part of the government’s plans to cleanse the state-run hospitals, started at 12.30 pm. A team from the hospital was assisted by the police. “All vendors were thrown out of the premises and the newly recruited security staff have been asked not to allow them in,” Biswas said.

The hospital has recruited 48 private security personnel from April. Earlier, there were 10 such private securitymen at the hospital. MCH social welfare officer Pranab Mukherjee said: “With the enhancement of security in the hospital, the authorities want to keep the place free from settlers.”

Vehicles intruding on the hospital campus were also not spared. “Many vehicles take a short cut through the hospital campus. This causes unnecessary environmental pollution here and also poses security problems,” the deputy superintendent said. On Saturday, licences of 15 such vehicles were seized, he said.

Hospital sources said drug abuse and other petty crimes like snatching were on the rise on the hospital campus and this had forced the authorities to undertake the drive.

On March 20, several such people had been driven out from the campus at night but they returned soon after. “So we decided to evict them at daytime,” an official said. He alleged that a section of hospital staff was providing shelter to these settlers.

Sources said the den for drug peddling inside the hospital was the Chunilal Seal’s Block — deserted eight years ago. They added that more such drives against settlers would be required to clean up the campus.

However, Saturday’s drive was not able to make the hospital totally free of illegal settlers. Behind the MCH building, several families were still occupying a large area, sources pointed out.