Assam Health Department is yet to respond to the notice served by State Human Rights Commission on medical facilities for mentally ill patients
From Mayukh Goswami
Mangaldai: Though more than two months of the dateline has elapsed, the government of Assam is yet to submit the requisite information/report before the Assam Human Right Commission (AHRC) in connection with its Case No. 4068 0f 2020-21 (3)/5 . The AHRC had registered this case on the basis of a news report published in a section of media including Assam News Network in the month of February 2021 regarding the govt apathy towards the Psychiatric ward of Mangaldai Civil Hospital (MCH) dealing with a large no of mentally ill patients of the district and subsequent complaint filed by a group of socially sensitive lawyers of Mangaldai Bar Association.
The AHRC while taking a note on the complaint petition , passed an order on March 16 , 2021 to serve notice to the Principal Secretary , Health and Family Welfare Department , Govt of Assam directing him to submit the requisite information /report on or before 22 nd April , 2021. The order also says that in the event of any default , the Commission may proceed to take such action as it deems proper . However till filing of this report the complainant lawyers are yet to be informed by the AHRC whether it has received any information / report from the government in this regard. “ We are waiting for a reply from the government to the Commission and we are also ready to answer if we are not satisfied . So far we have not received any correspondence from the Commission in this regard.”, said Jayanta Deka , one of the petitioner lawyers while talking to this correspondent.
It is pertinent to mention here that Jayanta Deka along with three of his colleague lawyer namely Jatin Nath , Nayanmoni Deka and Nirod Deka while taking a serious note on the said news paper report , made the following few charter of demands before the government including early construction of a state of the art separate indoor ward in Psychiatric department in the district hospital (MCH) , till the completion of the construction of a separate indoor ward a stop gap arrangements be within the present infrastructure to house the indoor male / female mentally ill patients and urgent appointment of all the requisite medical staff and filling up of the vacant post in the Psychiatric ward of the hospital as per the norms set by the World Health Organization.
