Hotel agrees to foot bill for hospitalisation of scientists

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD, SEPT. 9. Following hospitalisation of 20 scientists, out of the 63 who had lunch on September 6 at the Central Court Hotel, Lakdi-ka-pul, the hotel management today assured that it would meet all the expenditure incurred for the treatment of those hospitalised.

The money paid by the Research Centre IMARTS (RCI) towards conducting the three-day workshop would also be returned, a press release from the Central Court Hotel said. The hotel management said that they were "equally surprised" over the alleged food contamination and were "inquiring into the matter further".

According to Mr. Nageswara Rao, Director, Management Services, RCI, who was coordinator of the workshop, five of the 20 scientists admitted to various hospitals were discharged on Sunday afternoon. "All those in the hospitals are absolutely out of danger", he said. The discharged scientists were Mr. Narayana (RCI-), Mr. Santosh Ranjan (TBRL-Chandigarh), Mrs. K. Sreedevi (RCI), Mr. Bhudeb Chakraborthy (Satyam Info-Hyderabad) and Mr. Shivashankarappa (DLRL-Hyderabad).

The workshop was organised by the RCI and subsequently cancelled as nearly one-third of the participants were hospitalised. On last Thursday, the first-day of the workshop, some of the participants complained of stomach pain, fever and diarrhoea after consuming alleged contaminated food during lunch.

Mr. K. Nageswara Rao said that he lodged a complaint with the Director General of Police, Mr. H.J. Dora, on September 8 as the hotel management failed to respond to his complaints of "food poisoning" made on September 7. Mr. Venkata Ratnam, Inspector, Saifabad police station, said that investigation into the reported food poisoning was on and "nothing can be ascertained at this stage".

A total of 63 participants attended the workshop. While four were from Mumbai and three from Chandigarh, one each from Pune and Sriharikota participated. The remaining were from various institutions like RCI, DRDL, DLRL and ECIL, all based at Hyderabad. The hospitalised scientists were Mr. K. Rajeswara Rao (RCI), Mr. K. Suryanarayana (RCI), Mr. K. Ramesh (RCI), Mr. E. Murali (LNT Electronics-Hyderabad)-in Yashoda hospital, Malakpet, Mr. A. Gangadhar Rao (DLRL) and J. Prameela Rani (DLRL)-in Srinivasa hospital, Santoshnagar, Mr. N.S. Harishchandra Rao (DLRL) and Mr. K. Gangadhara Rao (DLRL)-in Kamineni hospitals, Mr. P.S. Ananthraj (DLRL)-in Apollo hospitals, Vikrampuri, Mr. Padmanatham-in Yashoda hospital, Mr. E. Bhushan Rao-in Maithri hospital, Ameerpet and Mr. Satish and Mr. Srinivasulu Reddy of Astra Microwaves Pvt. Ltd. in Sumana hospital, Kukatpally.

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