Botched surgeries: Maoists seek C’garh CM’s resignation

'Women were lured to camp with promise of money'

Raipur: The outlawed CPI (Maoist) has blamed Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh and state Health Minister Amar Agrawal for the deaths of 13 women during a recent sterilisation drive and sought their resignation.

The Maoists dropped pamphlets and put up banners in Chhattisgarh's insurgency-hit Dantewada district protesting against the sterilisation tragedy.

"The pamphlets and posters were recovered from a road near Kumharras village under Dantewada police station limits ," Dantewada Superintendent of Police Kamlochan Kashyap told PTI. In the pamphlets, the West Bastar Division Committee of the banned outfit has alleged that the Chief Minister and the Health Minister were responsible for the deaths of the poor women during the sterilisation camps in Bilaspur district. "They have lost the moral ground to continue in their positions," it said.

Meanwhile, husband of a Baiga tribe woman who died, alleged that health workers put pressure on them and also held out a promise of money for consenting to the operation.

"Auxillary nurse-midwives and mitanins (women health workers) told the women that they will get a hefty sum of money and free medicines. But afterwards they were given just Rs 30-40, and told that rest of the money was spent on the transportation and other arrangements," alleged Buddhu Singh, whose wife Chaiti Bai was one of the 13 women who died.

The amount that a woman who undergoes tubectomy had been increased from Rs 600 to Rs 1,400 earlier this month.