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'Deaths not due to negligence'

By Our Special Correspondent

KOLKATA SEPT. 3. As the ruling Leftists on the one hand and the Opposition Congress and the Trinamool Congress on the other get set for a fierce debate on the cause of death of 14 children in the State-run B.C. Roy Memorial Hospital in the city over the past 72 hours, one more child died today. "I can only say that the deaths were not abnormal,'' the West Bengal Health Minister, Surya Kanta Mishra, commented. "The children were critical at the time of admission and did not die of any infection due to the negligence of hospital authorities.''

The children are believed to have died due to shortage of oxygen. The Trinamool Congress supremo, Mamata Banerjee, who visited the hospital last evening threatened to launch an agitation against the lack of infrastructure. The State Congress led by the former party president, Somen Mitra, demonstrated outside the hospital today. The Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee Government which had already ordered an inquiry into the incident by the Director of Medical Education has turned down the Opposition's demand of a judicial probe.

In New Delhi, the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, today voiced concern over the deaths and said he would ask the Union Health Ministry to look into the matter

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