Cooch Behar, Oct. 30: The death of an eight-year-old girl at Mekhliganj subdivisional hospital for want of a bottle of saline has triggered a murky blame-game that does not answer what led to the crisis.

The finger-pointing, however, reveals that the life-saving drip was not purchased though the district health administration had the required funds.

Inquiries revealed the district hospital required 300,000 bottles of saline annually and only 108,000 units were supplied between April and October.

At present, there are around 360 saline bottles in the district government hospitals.

While the CPM leadership holds the health officials responsible for the crisis, the latter has pinned the blame on the district magistrate’s office.

The sabhadhipati of the CPM-controlled Cooch Behar zilla parishad, Ananta Roy, has asked the district chief medical officer of health to furnish reasons that led to the crisis.

The CPM leader is also the chairman of the district health committee.

“Despite the fact that the state health department blacklisted two saline manufacturers after they reportedly sent stocks of expired bottles to the SSKM hospital this month, a Rs 12-lakh contract was given to them to supply saline bottles to the five subdivisional hospitals before Durga puja,” Roy said.

Health department sources said the Cooch Behar health administration had instructed the subdivisional hospital superintendents to locally purchase the necessary drips and other medicines, which were in short supply. It seems now that the instruction was ignored.

“I have asked for an explanation from the chief medical officer of health as to why the superintendent of Mekhliganj subdivisional hospital did not purchase the medicines,” Roy said.

The sabhadhipati was also miffed at the fact that he was kept in the dark about the Rs 12-lakh deal, in spite of being the chairman of the health committee.

Admitting that saline was not purchased, superintendent of Mekhliganj subdivisional hospital Bijoy Roy said: “I am not empowered to procure medicines locally. It is the chief medical officer of health who looks after the matter.”

The district health administration is unwilling to buy the argument.

“We had already instructed the superintendents of the subdivisional hospitals to buy the required drugs and saline from the local market. We are investigating why the Mekhliganj superintendent did not buy the medicine,” said chief medical officer of health Tamasha Roy.

Asked about the sabhadhipati’s claim that he was not informed about the disbursement of Rs 12 lakh, Tamasha Roy said it was disbursed from the health project cell in Calcutta.

“The funds for this project are sent from Calcutta to the district magistrate’s office and from there the money goes straight to the subdivisional hospital. The health administration has nothing to do with its disbursement. The sabhadhipati can seek an explanation from the district magistrate,” she said.

“That Rs 12 lakh was given to the suppliers is known to both the zilla parishad and the chief medical officer. The chief medical officer as well as the health-in-charge of the zilla parishad were both present when the money was disbursed,” said additional district magistrate O.S. Meena.