Kavitha seeks Rs 50 lakh ex-gratia

Metro India News | Adilabad : Telangana Rakshana Sena (TRS) chief Kalvakuntla Kavitha on Wednesday termed the deaths of five infants in a fire at the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), Adilabad, as "government-sponsored killings," attributing the tragedy to official negligence and systemic failure. Inspecting the hospital’s Special Newborn Care Unit (SNCU) where the blaze broke out, Kavitha interacted with hospital staff and grieving parents to assess the circumstances surrounding the incident. 

Expressing deep anguish over the loss of lives, she demanded an ex-gratia compensation of Rs 50 lakh each for the bereaved families, as well as for the families of infants currently undergoing treatment following the fire. Lashing out at Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, Kavitha questioned his failure to visit RIMS despite having previously adopted the district. She alleged that while the Chief Minister found time for foreign travel and sports events, he neglected to visit the site where minority and tribal infants lost their lives.

Kavitha also targeted the Health Minister, characterizing his recent visit to the facility as a brief, "excursion-like" visit lasting under ninety minutes. She alleged that neither the Chief Minister nor the Health Minister had adequately inspected the region's healthcare facilities over the past two and a half years.

Highlighting a history of systemic lapses at RIMS due to poor maintenance and inadequate funding, the TRS president claimed that 204 infants had died out of 1,500 admissions last year, following 174 infant deaths out of 1,300 admissions the preceding year. She accused the state administration of ignoring past warnings and failing to conduct timely reviews of the hospital’s infrastructure.