RTI forces RML hospital to adopt radiation safety measures

Govt rules of radition was not being followed till the application seeking details about them was filed.

Updated on: May 27, 2012, 12:20:12 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Country's premier super speciality hospital Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) lacked radiation safety measures till an application under transparency law Right To Information (RTI) was filed.

Ghayshyam of east Delhi filed an innocous application in July 2011 asking RML whether it has taken measures to provide safety to patients against radiation from medical machines as per the norms of the government.

The RML found it has not.

And, it couldn't have told Ghanshyam that it violates government rules. "The queries raised by the appellant (Ghanshyam) had some fundamental issues about radiation safety," the RML hospital told the Central Information Commission, in a reply to Ghanshyam's appeal.

His appliction stirred action.

The hospital took four months to comply with the government conditions including make the machines radiation safe and appointing a radiation safety officer under direct supervision of Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB), top body on nuclear radiation safety.

"The Respondent admits that because of this RTI application the hospital was forced in to developing a proper system to ensure radiation safety. Answering these queries was very difficult since some of the necessary processes did not exist and a committee was setup which has taken appropriate corrective steps, a radiation safety officer has been appointed in the hospital with the approval of AERB," the hospital said in a written reply.

Once that was done, a detailed reply was given to Ghanshyam.

That did not deter him for seeking penal action RML officials for not providing the information in time.

The hospital's candid admission was enough for Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi to drop penalty charges and observed that the hospital had rightly taken the RTI application and the questions it posed to correct certain vital deficiencies in procedures.

"The Commission would like to congratulate the public authority and the appellant for using this great democratic tool in the positive manner. In view of this the penalty proceedings are dropped and the matter is closed at the Commission’s end," his order read.

There are many other government hospitals, which fail to comply with radiation safety norms. Another RTI application by Rahul Verma of Uday Foundation had found that most of the hospitals in India don't comply with radiation safety measures prescribed by AERB.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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