Full blare

Raiganj, March 7: With scant regard for sound restrictions, DYFI supporters today “monitored” on-duty doctors with blaring microphones, a stone’s throw from the district hospital here.

More than 50 members of the CPM-backed youth wing assembled in front of a private nursing home, close to the hospital, around 10 am. They soon set up a makeshift stage complete with microphones and started shouting slogans. This went on till 12 noon.

Armed with a list of doctors on duty at the out patients’ department (OPD), some of the DYFI followers went round the hospital to check if the doctors and other medical staff had reported for duty at 9 am. They later lodged a complaint with the hospital superintendent against two doctors of the child and medicine OPDs, who were allegedly not in their chambers at 11 am.

Patients at the hospital were among the worst sufferers. “I had gone to the hospital doubled up with stomach ache and was waiting for my turn when the slogans started. The noise coupled with the heat made it unbearable,” said Bimala Das, a resident here.

Secretary of the DYFI’s town unit Kartik Das said their programme today had been triggered by the plight of patients at the hospital.

“There is no duty roster for doctors. Some doctors work as agents of private nursing homes and refer patients on the slightest pretext,” Das alleged. He added that the programme would continue for an indefinite period.

On the other hand, joint secretary of Association of Health Services Doctors Dhiman Pal said they would not tolerate such “unauthorised supervision”.

District superintendent of police Swapan Banerjee Purnapatra said they had not issued permission for use of microphones in the silence zone.