Demanding that health minister T Harish Rao take responsibility for these deaths and tender his resignation immediately, the Opposition parties have accused Chief Minister and TRS supremo K Chandrashekar Rao of “fleeing” the state on Wednesday to avoid firing Harish Rao, who is his nephew.
The BJP and the Congress have also also questioned why at least 20 other women who were unwell after the surgery had to be shifted to Hyderabad’s Apollo Hospital if the government- run health facilities were “world-class” as claimed by the KCR government.
On August 25, 34 women underwent family planning operations at a day-long camp at Ibrahimpatnam’s Civil Hospital. The state Public Health director, G Srinivas Rao, said that four of them later complained of acute gastroenteritis and approached private hospitals for treatment during which two women – M Mamata, 22, and M Sushma, 22 – died on August 29. A day later, K Mounika, 26, and A Lavanya, 27, also passed away, prompting the state government to shift 20 other women to Apollo Hospital.
The KCR government announced an ex gratia of Rs 5 lakh and a two-bedroom house each to the families of the deceased, whose children will be admitted in the government residential schools. While the government has constituted a committee to inquire into their deaths, the Opposition have accused it of trying to brush the surgery fiasco under the carpet.
After visiting the women patients at Apollo Hospital, Telangana BJP president and Karimnagar MP, Bandi Sanjay Kumar, said, “Every other day Harish Rao claims that Telangana is number one in the country in providing healthcare services. Four young mothers have lost their lives after a very basic surgery. Is this the kind of health service that the state provides. Instead of saving lives, they take them…Health minister has not uttered a word since the botched-up surgeries. He should take responsibility and resign.”
Telangana Congress leader Mohammed Ali Shabbir also charged that these deaths indicate the “poor health infrastructure” in the state. “CM KCR and health minister Harish Rao claim that state government hospitals provide world-class facilities. Just visit any rural hospital and you will find that the infrastructure is in dire straits. The ambulances are falling apart; the X-ray and CT scan machines and other equipment have broken down. There is staff shortage in all the government health facilities,’’ he charged.
Bandi Sanjay also alleged that “KCR has gone out of the state to save his political future, leaving the Telangana people to their fate,” adding “Instead of meeting and consoling the families of the deceased women, the CM chose to fly to Bihar to distribute cheques to the families of Bhoiguda fire accident victims. For him, gaining publicity with such tricks is more important than poor women’s lives. He will have to pay the penalty for the same.”
During his Wednesday visit to Patna, KCR met his Bihar counterpart Nitish Kumar as part of his efforts to forge an alliance of regional parties. At a joint press meet with Nitish, he also accused the BJP of “making false promises”, calling for a “BJP-mukt Bharat”.
Bandi Sanjay demanded that the KCR government pay an ex gratia of Rs 1 crore each to the kin of the deceased, among other things. Those women undergoing treatment should be paid Rs 10 lakh each, he added.
He also alleged that the Ibrahimpatnam hospital’s medical superintendent wanted to create a record by conducting 34 family planning surgeries in a span of one hour, demanding that the licenses of doctors concerned should be suspended for life.
Shabbir Ali charged: “The KCR government has not done anything to improve health services across rural Telangana. This is the reason why those women after their surgery complications had to be shifted to Apollo Hospital because no government hospital is equipped to save lives.”
The health minister’s spokesperson refused to comment on the row but said the ministers will give a statement following the inquiry into these deaths.
G Srinivas Rao, however, denied the Opposition parties’ charges. Speaking to The Indian Express, he said the Ibrahimpatnam hospital’s medical superintendent has been suspended for life. “It appears that he (medical superintendent) pushed the doctors to perform the surgeries quickly. The doctors who conducted the surgeries are under inquiry and if proved guilty, their licences would be cancelled and legal action taken against them. We will release the full report of the inquiry about what went wrong that resulted in the death of the four women,’’ he said.
Opposition parties have accused Chief Minister and TRS supremo K Chandrashekar Rao of “fleeing” the state on Wednesday to avoid firing Harish Rao, who is his nephew and the state's health minister (File) 
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