A day after the collapse of a 68-year-old building in Kottayam Medical College hospital, protests continued to erupt against the Kerala government and Health Minister Veena George throughout the state on Friday. The corridors of Kottayam Medical College Hospital were filled with "Veena George should resign!" slogans on Friday, when Youth Congress workers took out a procession to the hospital in protest. The situation turned ugly when the protesters attempted to jump over the barricades, and the police used water cannons to drive the protesters away.
Protesting for the resignation of the health minister, Indian Youth Congress activists organised a protest march to Veena's native place in Pathanamthitta, carrying a coffin. The coffin represents the condition of Kerala's health department, according to the activists. The police barricaded the protestors, which resulted in a fight between the two sides. The police used water cannons.
Senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala on Friday lashed out strongly against the ruling government for the state of public hospitals in the state. "The state of most of the hospitals in the state is pathetic. Since the health minister is not ready to resign, the Chief Minister should remove the minister," he said in a statement to the press.
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At the same time, the Bharatiya Janata Party conducted a march to Thiruvananthapuram health minister's house. Water cannons were used by police to disperse the protesters.
Kerala Cooperation Minister VN Vasavan on Friday dismissed claims that search and rescue operations at the collapsed section of the Kottayam Medical College were delayed or suspended and labelled such accusations as "politically motivated".
The minister's statement came amidst intensified protests from the opposition Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party, who demanded Health Minister Veena George's resignation, a day after a 52-year-old mother of two died in the building collapse, alleging her death was 'tantamount to murder' due to delayed search operations.
In the meantime, KPCC president Sunny Joseph accused ministers Vasavan and George, who reached the spot after the attack, of attempting to "whitewash" and "simplify" the incident, thus causing the search operations to get delayed. According to him, George had no legal or moral right to be in office anymore. Joseph also targeted Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan with not even making an attempt to conduct a preliminary inquiry into the incident when he came to the hospital.
"There has been gross dereliction of duty and criminal negligence in the case," he claimed after going to meet the family of the deceased woman, Bindu, at their house in Kottayam on Friday.
He added that the Congress would carry on with peaceful protests regarding the incident and demanded a judicial inquiry into it. Bindu (52) was killed and three others — Aleena (11), Amal Pradeep (20), and Jinu Saji (38) — were hurt in the incident.
At the same time, devastating scenes were witnessed at Bindu's residence where the sorrow of her family could be gauged from their tearful eyes, depressed and vacant gazes and boisterous wails as they sat by her remains, which were preserved for public viewing for family, friends and neighbors to offer their last respects.
The toilet block near wards 10, 11, and 14 of Kottayam Government Medical College collapsed on Thursday when the hospital was implementing full-scale relocation of services to its newly constructed surgical block.
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