Beggar death guilty get away

Two men largely responsible for deaths have gone unpunished

Despite recommendations from the Social Welfare Department to file criminal charges against then Chairman of Central Relief Committee C N Manjegowda and the doctor at the Primary Health Centre, Harimurthy, the government has chosen to take the easy way out and pursue charges only against four government employees, leaving these two to get away unscrutinised and unpunished. Worse, the doctor continued to work at the Colony despite strong criticism on his role in the large scale deaths at the Colony.

The inquiry report by National Rural Health Mission Director S Selvakumar had categorically laid the blame for the large-scale deaths at the Colony on the financial and administrative mismanagement of Manjegowda. The report had stated that Manjegowda had broken flouted several rules and was solely responsible for conceiving the plan to round up beggars during a mass drive and filled the place with more than 2,500 beggars, when the capacity of the Colony was not more than 750.

Similar is the case of Dr Harimurthy. He had been hired by Karuna Trust, which has a public private partnership (PPP) with the Health Department to run the centre.

The doctor had been criticised for not being able to gauge the deterioration of the health of the inmates, signing death certificates indiscriminately attributing the reason of death due to ‘old age’ or ‘natural death.’ The report indicted him for not even subjecting inmates to a cursory examination when the they entered, or segregating the diseased ones and the mentally ill from the healthy inmates. Expired medicines were found at the centre and by all indications not a single person was treated at the health centre and functioned for most times as a morgue.

Yet, the government has not found it fit to file any charges against him and allowed him to function at the Beggars’ Colony till October 31.

Quite contrary to legal opinion, Minister for Social Welfare A Narayanaswamy insisted that the government could not file charges against them since they were not government employees.

“If the COD probe finds them responsible for the deaths, then we will file charges,” he maintained. Officials who recommended criminal charges against them are aghast about the lack of action. A source in the Social Welfare Department said that both Manjegowda and Harimurthy had enough clout to influence the decision in their favour.