A shocking video from Jharkhand's Hazaribag district has ignited a fierce political debate and raised alarming questions about the state of rural healthcare infrastructure. The footage, which went viral on social media, shows a woman undergoing a family planning surgery, specifically a tubectomy, under the light of mobile phone torches due to a power failure at a government health centre.
Contradictory Claims and a Viral Video
The incident occurred at the Keradari Community Health Centre (CHC) on December 13. The video depicts medical staff completing the surgical procedure in near darkness, illuminated only by the torches from handheld mobile phones. This immediately triggered public outrage and concerns over patient safety.
However, the CHC's medical officer-in-charge, Dr. Naseef Anjum, offered a contradictory narrative. He claimed the video was of an old incident and asserted that the generator was switched on immediately after the power cut. Denying any negligence, Dr. Anjum instead accused a local health worker, or sahiya named Sarita Devi, of deliberately leaking the video to tarnish the centre's reputation.
Local residents countered the official's claims, stating that chronic power cuts and a persistent lack of resources plague the CHC. They alleged that their repeated demands for better facilities and reliable emergency preparedness have been consistently ignored by the administration.
Official Inspection and Reprimands
Following the public uproar, District Civil Surgeon Dr. Ashok Kumar and District Programme Manager Shamresh Singh conducted a spot inspection at the Keradari CHC. Their findings were damning. They discovered that the lights in the operation theatre were entirely dependent on the main power supply, with no automatic backup system in place.
Dr. Kumar issued immediate directives, ordering the doctors to call an electrician and rectify the connections to ensure power could be drawn from alternative sources. He also reprimanded Dr. Anjum and instructed that no future operations should be conducted without first ensuring the generator was operational. The sahiya who recorded the video, Sarita Devi, was also summoned and questioned about the incident.
Political War of Words Erupts
The incident quickly escalated into a political confrontation. Babulal Marandi, the state BJP president and Leader of the Opposition, launched a sharp attack on Health Minister Irfan Ansari. He questioned whether patient lives had become "so cheap" for the state health department and accused the minister of being more interested in distributing job letters and controversies in other states than managing his own department's healthcare centres.
In response, Supriyo Bhattacharya, JMM central general secretary, defended the health department and criticized Marandi's conduct. He argued that technical issues can arise during surgeries and emphasized that the doctor, despite difficulties, completed the operation in the patient's best interest. Bhattacharya suggested Marandi should have sought complete information from the civil surgeon instead of directly targeting the health minister.
The controversy has put a harsh spotlight on the ground realities of Jharkhand's public health system, particularly in rural areas, where infrastructure gaps and resource shortages can directly jeopardize patient safety during critical procedures.
