Kolkata, Nov 1: This minister surely has a foot-in-the-mouth disease. He is none other than Sudip Bandopadhyay, Union minister of state for Health and Family Welfare under Ghulam Nabi Azad.
On the spate of child deaths in West Bengal hospitals, this is what Sudip Badopadhyay had to say : "You see a big tornado comes once in a year. Similarly a tsunami comes occasionally killing so many people.
"It is really unfortunate though it happens rarely. Nobody wants people to die. But I can say the infants did not die due to negligence. "I give a clean chit to the hospitals. I spoke to the doctors. I think the doctors tried their best".
On Monday evening, the toll went up to 46 in the last five days. 17 newborn infants died in Burdwan hospital, 18 died in Kolkata's B C Roy Children Hospital, 4 in Berhampore Hospital, Murshidabad and 7 in Jangipur, Murshidabad.
Says BJP leader Smriti Irani : "I went round the wards in B C Roy Hospital and found garbages and stray dogs moving around. The wards were really dirty where the infants and their mothers were staying. I just can't understand why the minister made such a remark and gave the hospital a clean chit."
