Errant staff follow up assault with sabotage

kolkata: the red army at the medical college and hospital here is at war, and they have made the kitchen their target. to protest the recent eviction drive and demolition of illegal structures, the storm troopers have virtually taken over the kitchen, threatening the steward of dire consequences if he failed to fall in. as part of their counter-offensive, they 'released' the gas connection on friday night, which would have resulted in a serious mishap but for timely detection.the kitchen was stinking and we had to hurriedly stop the leak of the gas. a few hours more, and there could have been a violent explosion, recalled a fire fighter called to the hospital's rescue early saturday morning. but the steward, even after an assurance from the firemen, refused to cook after watching the conditions later in the day. he just said he will not cook, said a hospital staff, adding we were forced to arrange for a casual cook as this is the most vital part of the hospital management system. but he luckily had second thoughts and joined work after seeing the other cook at work. on the previous day, there were dead rats all around the kitchen and sweepers took about three hours to clean the kitchen. on that day, we had a crisis as you can imagine, if cooking for so many people in the hos-pital gets delayed by three long hours and where hygiene is also vital, exclaimed a kitchen staff. some group d employees in laboratories have refused to do their job in practical classes, forcing students themselves to do the cleaning. the assault on the superintendent has exposed them and they are not worried now since the chief minister of the state has also given them a clean chit, complained a doctor bitterly. nurses say they are actually spending sleepless nights worrying over the next form of attack. we know there will not be an overt attack but insidious acts which will keep disturbing the set up and everyday a new problem will crop up, said one of them. a departmental head on condition of anonymity said, this is clearly an act of sabotage as all this have started happening from last week. i only pray that they do not do such things with the lives of patients. fear is all pervasive. so much so that one of the policemen deployed at the medical college said, we too feel it is boiling. anything can happen anytime.