The body of Sujan Ali at Jaypur in Sonamura subdivision. Picture by Parthajit Dutta

Agartala, July 4: . The death of a minority community youth from snakebite without treatment in the state’s premier Gobind Ballav Pant Hospital has brought into focus the pitiable state of hospitals in Tripura, despite government propaganda about development in the health sector.

Sujan Ali, 32, a resident of Jaypur village in the minority-dominated Sonamura subdivision, had returned home from his work place in Dubai last Friday.

However, Sujan’s happy reunion with his wife and three children after a lapse of three years suffered a setback as a venomous cobra bit him in his mud-walled hut on Saturday night.

Sujan’s relatives tied the upper part of his body above the bitten knee tightly with a rope and rushed him to Sonamura subdivisional hospital.

But no treatment was available there, as the hospital had no stock of any antidote to snakebites.

He was rushed to G.B. Pant Hospital after midnight.

The body lay in the emergency unit of the hospital till 3 in the morning, because there were no senior doctors around and no stock of anti-snakebite injection. Around 3.15 in the morning Sujan was taken to the male casualty ward where he passed away shortly.

He was buried this morning in a graveyard close to his ancestral village.

Sujan’s death has sparked a major controversy over the functioning of the health department of the state with the Opposition demanding the immediate resignation or dismissal of health minister Tapan Chakraborty.

“We are short of 2,941 doctors and 1,170 nurses, the situation is, however, improving and people will get better service in the days to come,” Chakraborty said.“This case was an exception. We rarely get patients with snakebites and hence the supply of anti-bite serum is not regular but it is really unfortunate that a young man died of snakebite without treatment,” said Satya Ranjan Debbarma, director of health services.

Sujan’s death has focussed on the pathetic state of health services in Tripura, which now has two medical colleges.