Rights activists during the cleanliness drive at MGM Medical College and Hospital in Sakchi on Sunday. Picture by Bhola Prasad

Members of Jharkhand Human Rights Council (JHRC) on Sunday carried out a cleanliness drive at the MGM Medical College and Hospital in Sakchi in a symbolic protest to shame lax authorities into taking necessary steps to keep the heal hub clean.

Led by JHRC president Manoj Mishra, as many as 20 human rights activists took up brooms and mops to clean different wards even as private cleaning staff played mute spectators.

Drawing inspiration from the “shramdaan” by JHRC members that began around 10.30am and continued till 1pm, relatives and attendants of patients also took up mops and buckets to clean the floors of the wards.

“Today’s shramdaan was just a symbolic protest against the hospital administration, which has turned a blind eye to cleanliness and hygiene. The heal hub has no dearth of funds, yet it stinks like a garbage dump. There is no water supply to wards and toilets are not cleaned. Ultimately, patients and their attendants are forced to live in utterly unhygienic conditions,” said the JHRC president.

Mishra added that they would keep visiting the Sakchi premises every Sunday to carry out similar shramdaan until the authorities woke up to take necessary steps.

Also, rights activists are planning to launch an agitation against the district administration for failing to provide the basic necessity — cleanliness — at the hospital.

Speaking to The Telegraph, Mishra said: “The hospital has been facing water problems for the past two months owing to some technical glitches. We had raised the matter before then superintendent A.N. Mishra, the principal of the medical college who was additionally given charge of the hospital. He had sought 15 days in July. But, nothing was done to restore water supply.”

A. N. Mishra claimed he had initiated steps to solve the problem, but was relieved of the additional charge of hospital superintendent before matters could be remedied.

New hospital superintendent R.Y. Chowdhury, who took charge earlier this month, said he was looking into the matter and the water supply would be restored soon.