A priest “blesses” the X-ray machine. Picture by Main Uddin Chisti

Cooch Behar, Sept. 18: Several patients wanting to get their X-rays done at the district hospital here today were turned away as the technical employees performed Viswakarma Puja in the radiology unit and operation theatre and cooked a large cauldron of khichdi inside the radiologist’s chamber.

The X-ray facility at MJN Hospital remained closed during the first half of the day. The X-ray machine and the computer monitors were decorated with flowers and leaves, while the technicians put sandalwood paste and sindoor on scalpels and other surgical instruments.

“I have cast a spell on the equipment so that they do not malfunction while in use,” said Arun Goswami, the priest.

A few doctors and nurses were also seen trooping in to have their share of the khichdi, or prasad, which was being cooked over a gas stove.

All the while Puchuni Roy from Tufanganj waited in the corridor outside the X-ray room with her five-year-old son, Bappa, who had a piece of electric wire stuck inside his cheek. “I have been waiting for over an hour and I do not know when they will do the X-ray,” she said, adding that the puja could have been held elsewhere on the hospital campus.

Alo Bibi, a pregnant woman with a water-retention problem, was also waiting for an X-ray. Her husband, Salam Miyan, later took her to a private clinic to get it done. “It will cost me Rs 150 outside, whereas here it would have been for free. But how long can we wait here,” said Salam.

Everyday, around 40-50 people come to the hospital for X-rays.

Hospital superintendent Kalyan Dey saw nothing wrong in the incident. “Traditionally those who work with machines and instruments observe Viswakarma Puja. There is no need to take permission and I received no complaints about people returning without getting their X-rays done,” he said.

The Cooch Behar chief medical officer of health, S.K. Sil, said he did not know that the puja was taking place inside the hospital. “The beating of the gong will disturb the patients. I will look into the matter,” he said.

Bengal health minister Surjyakanta Mishra was in Siliguri today. When told about the incident in Cooch Behar, he said: “If someone has done this, it was wrong.”

Mishra came to North Bengal Medical College and Hospital in Siliguri today to formally inaugurate an anti-retroviral therapy (ART) Centre there.

The centre will get a CD-4 machine by the end of October, said officials.