Agencies
Patna: After purportedly drinking of lakhs of litres of confiscated liquor, rats of Bihar have been blamed for an expensive diagnostic machine at a hospital in the state’s Jahanabad district going kaput.
The officials of the referral hospital at Makhdumpur claimed that rats have chewed through an x-ray machine worth Rs 22 lakh.
The incident came to light after opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal MLA Satish Kumar inspected the hospital on Thursday after he was informed that the machine was destroyed by rats.
“We have learnt that a large number of patients are being asked to do x-ray outside the hospital. Being a local MLA, I went there for the inspection of the hospital. The medical superintendent of referal hospital Makhdumpur said that the x-ray machine is not functional as it was bitten through by rats,” he said.
Following the incident, the MLA demanded the arrest of the real “rats” or the “corrupt officials” of the hospital.
Blaming rats for various things going missing or defunct is not a new thing. In fact, Bihar police and civil administrations of various districts had filed an affidavit before the court in May 2017, saying that lakh of litres of liquor, seized by police and kept at various police stations in Bihar, had been consumed by rats.
Following those affidavits, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav had sought the identification of “those rats”, or corrupt officials, that are drinking liquor.
Following the latest incident, RJD spokesperson Ritu Jaiswal said: “Rats (corrupt officials) are biting the chair of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. This government will fall soon.”
However, the ruling Janata Dal-United’s chief spokesperson Neeraj Kumar said: “RJD should not play games… This government will complete the tenure of 5 years.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Kashmir Monitor staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
