Four women gave birth by the light of their mobile torches at a primary health centre in Uttar Pradesh on Monday night after power went off and a newly installed ₹20-lakh solar plant failed to function.

Pinki Rajbhar, Manju Devi, Nitu Sahani and Raziya Khatun had all arrived in a four-hour window on a moonless night in stifling heat, but thankfully armed with a cellphone each.

Pinki’s husband Chandrama, 40, said electric lights and fans hardly ever worked at the Beruarbari PHC, located in Ballia district.

“Almost every week, I accompany one patient or the other from the village to this hospital. I have never seen a light working or a fan moving,” he was quoted as telling local reporters.

Nitu, one of the new mothers, said: “(Electric) light? Hum apan baina le ke ayee rahni han ihan (I brought my own hand fan).”

Chandrama said the PHC staff conducted the delivery by the light of Pinki’s own mobile phone.

“It was cloudy, so there was no moonlight. But this is the only government hospital for 26 villages in the area,” he said.

Local reporters came to know of the matter on Wednesday and questioned health department officials.

Sanjeev Varman, chief medical officer of Ballia, said: “We have served a notice on the company that installed the solar plant at the hospital. An inquiry has been ordered why the staff had to attend to the patients by the light of mobile phones.”

The Sonbarsa community health centre (CHC), 9km west of Beruarbari but located in the same district, has functioning lights. What it lacked on May 22 night was doctors and nurses, who had all left by evening.

So, when Savita Patel’s family brought her for childbirth, the ward staff wouldn’t let her in. She gave birth on the road outside the gate, assisted by an untrainedfemale relative.

“They said, ‘Let the doctors come (in the morning) and they will arrange a bed for you’’ But I couldn’t wait,” Savita told reporters.

Vijay Kumar Yadav, additional chief medical officer of Ballia, said he had conducted an inquiry after a video, showing Savita complaining about her plight, was posted on social media.

“We have relieved two doctors and two nurses of their duties and are conducting a departmental inquiry,” he said.

New doctors and nurses have been posted to the CHC but the villagers are sceptical about any improvement.

“All the doctors posted here in the past ran their own private practice. They never stayed here after 6pm,” Shakuntala Patel, a resident, said.

“The nurses and most other staff too leave. Thereafter, one or two ward boys run the hospital.”