Pune: Corporator dies at 41 while undergoing treatment at pvt hospital, PCMC sets up panel to probe

Hospital says she died of dengue, YCMH says dengue not cause of death

Archana Tanaji Barne (file photo)

THE Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation has decided to set up a three-member committee to probe the death of BJP corporator Archana Barne.

Barne died in a private hospital, where she was undergoing treatment, on July 31. She was 41 and is survived by her husband and two children.

While the private hospital where she underwent treatment said Barne died of dengue, a report by YCM Hospital ruled out dengue as the cause of death. This angered PCMC corporators, who created an uproar at the civic general body meet on Tuesday. Mayor Usha Dhore then announced the setting up of a committee of doctors to ascertain the cause of Barne’s death.

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“Her death has stunned citizens and corporators… she died just 4-5 days after being admitted to a private hospital. She had been apparently undergoing treatment at two private hospitals. The private hospital said she died of dengue. But the YCMH report has ruled out dengue….,” Dhore told The Indian Express on Wednesday.

“There are two conflicting versions of her death. Did she die of dengue or not? If dengue was not the cause, then how did she die? Was there negligence in treatment by the private hospitals? These are questions the citizens and corporators are asking. When a healthy corporator dies and the cause behind her death is not clear, then it is bound to agitate everyone. That is why the PCMC is seeking to find out what exactly happened in this case,” she said.

At the civic general body meeting on Tuesday, corporators across party lines had demanded a thorough probe.

BJP corporator Eknath Pawar said, “If patients are not being treated in private hospitals, then it is a serious matter. In this case, it seems a people’s representative did not get proper treatment leading to her death. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct a thorough probe.”

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Former mayor Rahul Jadhav said,”Corporators work for citizens, unmindful of the risk to their lives. Even during Covid times, corporators have been working for local residents… we have lost four corporators in last one-and-a-half years. If there was negligence while treating a corporator, we can just imagine the plight of ordinary citizens undergoing treatment.”

PCMC Additional Health chief Dr Pavan Salve said, “It is true that the private hospital where the corporator was undergoing treatment gave the cause of death as dengue while the YCMH report said that dengue was not the cause. That’s why we have launched a probe…”.

Barne, a first-time corporator, was elected on a BJP ticket in the 2017 civic elections from Prabhag No 23, Thergaon. She had served as a standing committee member and also as chairperson of ‘G’ division of PCMC.

Manoj Dattatrye More

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades. Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died. Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More

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