SA Ramdas finds cancer in Kidwai’s oncology unit

Medical education minister SA Ramdas pulled up two employees, including a doctor, for not working and suspended one of them during a surprise visit to Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology (KMIO) on Tuesday.

Asking for documents such as the attendance register and files in which patients’ details are entered, the minister pulled up Dr Lakshmaiah, who had allegedly not worked during working hours on Monday. “I got a complaint when I was in Mysore on Monday that this doctor had worked only for half an hour and attended to only four or five patients of whom three were new patients. I have asked the hospital authorities to furnish details of biometric attendance to see if it is true,” Ramdas said.

On his visit to the blood bank and lab, he also pulled up S Lokesh, a junior lab technician, for the same reason. The minister asked Lokesh what he had been doing since morning. Lokesh said his job was only to draw blood and that he did not have to write anything down. He also told the minister that did not punch into the biometric attendance system and went to attend Karnataka Rajyotsava celebrations which were happening at the hospital.

The minister pulled up Lokesh and told the director to form a committee to inquire his case and also to suspend him. When Lokesh tried to retaliate, the minister asked him to ‘shut up’ and answer to the inquiry committee and not to him. “He was lying in front of the director of the hospital. If he had simply told me that he was out on Rajyotsava work, I would have let it go. But he told us that he had finished his work and then gone,” Ramdas said.

Meanwhile, Lokesh told reporters that he had been asking for information under the Right to Information Act (RTI). He alleged that there had been misappropriation of funds at the hospital. “The previous directors and the current ones are all part of this and they have swindled lakhs of rupees. Since I ask for such information, they are suppressing me this way,” he said. However, the minister told mediapersons later that he had not received any information about Lokesh and that he took the decision on the spot based