BHUBANESWAR: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has rapped Odisha government for allegedly failing to locate the victims, who were transfused with HIV and hepatitis inflected blood at VIMSAR in Burla four years ago, for paying compensation.
Acting on a petition and subsequent submissions filed by Supreme Court lawyer and rights activist Radhakant Tripathy, the apex human rights body has directed the Chief Secretary to expedite the process to pay the compensation and submit the proof of payment by February 25.
Source said a 70-year-old person from Rairakhol and a 60-year-old man from Brajarajnagar had undergone surgery at VIMSAR on June 13 and 12, 2016 respectively. Both the elderly persons were transfused blood during their surgery. Later, it was found that the man from Rairakhol was transfused with HIV infected blood and the Brajarajnagar man was transfused with hepatitis infected allegedly due to negligence of the doctors and staff the medical college.
Pursuant to the interim direction of the NHRC, the then Health Secretary had submitted a report stating that a data entry operator and a lab technician involved in transfusion of blood were disengaged and the medical officer on duty and in-charge medical officer of the blood bank were placed under suspension after a series of enquiries.
The rights panel had earlier directed the Chief Secretary to pay Rs 1 lakh each to Siddeswar Pradhan and Jaynarayan Sahu as compensation by October 4, 2020. Since the Health department informed the NHRC that payment of compensation could not be disbursed due to non-availability of their address, the Commission in its order has asked the Collectors of Sambalpur and Jharsuguda to publish a notice in local newspapers in favour of the victims for payment of compensation.