Kolkata:
A shocking case of 21 infant deaths in the last three days has come to light from Kolkata's BC Roy Hospital.
Angry families claim negligence on the part of the hospital authorities. They smashed hospital furniture and blocked a road for close to an hour, triggering a police lathicharge on Thursday.
The situation is reportedly calm today, and parents say they are getting better treatment now.
Earlier, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who is also the state's Health Minister, has set up an enquiry committee into the cause of deaths and sought its report in 24 hours.
"I have come to know that the babies were brought to the hospital at the last stage and that the cause of death was not enteric disease. I have ordered a probe and asked the authorities to submit a report to me," Ms Banerjee said on Thursday.
"If there is any negligence on anyone's part, whoever it is, I will not spare them. Also, I will not consider any body's political affiliation," she added.
The tragedy at BC Roy Hospital may have gone unnoticed but for the death of nine-month-old Aryan Gazi on Thursday morning.
"I begged the doctors to help my son, I fell at his feet. But the doctors didn't listen. I was crying... my son died," said Hannan Gazi, Aryan's father.
The doctors, however, deny allegations that there has been negligence on the hospital's part.
The Superintendent of the B C Roy Hospital, D Pal told PTI the babies who had died were either pre-mature or suffering from septicemia or low-birth weight problems. The medical institute is considered to be the largest referral paediatric hospital in the eastern region.
Earlier in September 2004, there were protests in the same hospital when 14 children died of broncho-pneumonia and gastro-enteritis, four of them because there were no oxygen cylinders.