AIDS: A Coterie of Officers use Tricks of Subterfuge against the High Court Order

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

The National Blood Policy makes it a must for the State “ to provide safe and adequate quantity of blood, blood components and blood products” (Objective 1) and “to make latest technology available” (Objective 3) to the blood banks for correct screening so that patients needing urgent transfusion would get safe blood.

But the State government run by Naveen Patnaik has failed to adopt “latest technology” as a result of which AIDS is spreading through blood transfusion in Orissa. Dependents on frequent transfusion such as thalassemia patients are more vulnerable to Virus 1 (HIV-!), Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) and Hepatitis B Virus (HBV).

After we exposed this phenomenon in these pages, various news media organizations have been harping on about the urgency of adoption of latest technology in screening of blood.

In a case of a 17 month old child who is infected with AIDS after taking blood transfusion, the Orissa High Court, a year ago, had not only awarded a cash compensation worth Rs. 3 lakhs to the infected boy, but also had made it a “must” for the Government to adopt advance technology, i.e. NAT PCR method in “all the Blood Banks” for blood screening, in order to ensure supply of “safe blood” to patients. Its mandate is in these words: “Therefore, the Government must ensure that in all blood Banks the Polymer Chain Reaction (PCR) method is available to identify the virus of HIV during window period”.

Steps to Implement the Court Order

This judgment had forced the State government to review its blood screening scenario in a high level committee constituted for the purpose under the chairmanship of Dr. Pramod Meherda, IAS, M.D., NRHM & Project Director, Orissa State AIDS Control Society.

The Professors & Heads of Departments of Microbiology in VSS Medical College, Burla Dr. Sudhir Kumar Ghosh, the Professors & Heads of Departments of Microbiology in MKCG Medical College, Berhampur Dr. Binojini Parida, the Associate Professors in Microbiology department of MKCG Medical College, Berhampur, the Associate Professors in Microbiology department of SCB Medical College, Cuttack Dr. Bimoch Prajna Pati, the Drug Controller of Orissa, Ex-Director of SBTC Dr. L.N.Hati, Dr. Mangala Pr. Mohanty, Hon. Secretary, IRCS-OSB, Director of Central Red Cross Blood Bank at Cuttack Dr. Benudhar Satpathy and seven other top functionaries were members in this committee.

Unanimous Recommendation for NAT

The Committee met on 25 Feb.2012 at the Conference hall of OSCAS. Its minutes disclose, “After thorough discussion on NAT PCR technology, the Committee unanimously recommended that the NAT PCR technology which is the latest testing facility need to be introduced for screening of the blood units to reduce the gray zone period of Transfusion Transmissible Infections like HIV-I, HIV-II, Hepatitis-B and HCV, as it is the latest and foremost technology available in India”.

The Sleeping State

Despite this “unanimous” recommendation submitted “after thorough discussion” by all the above noted illustrious microbiologists, serologists and other specialists in the Committee, the State Government did not wake up to the occasion.TTI continued to affect lives in Orissa.

We had to expose this monstrous negligence of the state to the most urgent need of the moment in these pages on 8 July 2012.

Shocking Mischief

Thereafter, on 24 July 2012, the Secretary of Health P.K.Mohapatra took a “meeting on implementation of NAT PCR in Blood Banks”.

To our surprise and shock, we found that all the super-specialists, serologists and microbiology Professors who, “after thorough discussion” in the previous meeting of 25 February 2012 had “unanimously” recommended that “the NAT PCR technology which is the latest testing facility need to be introduced for screening of the blood units to reduce the gray zone period of Transfusion Transmissible Infections” were kept out of this meeting and a Director of Medical Education and Training (DMET) having no role under the rules of business in the concerned matter, who was to retire from service the same month, was encouraged to lobby for the old ELISA method and to raise a bogus allegation that the High Court had delivered its verdict directing for adoption of NAT PCR for blood screening without being “apprised properly on the issue under reference”. And, it seems, such aspersions against the High Court was approved in the meeting, as is evidenced in its 1st resolution that reads, “ Special Secretary (Technical) H&FW Department, Govt. of Orissa will move file for filing a review petition against the judgement”.

New Tricks of subterfuge

It is seen from the meeting taken by the Health Secretary, that ,the Special Secretary of the Department who hails from the pool of Doctors, collaborated with the said DMET in confusing the issue with a downloaded document of Canadian Blood Banking Association “where it is mentioned that the HIV positive scenario is 1 in 2.7 million than ELISA”. The quoted observation is a conundrum and the Health secretary, before signing the minutes, has failed to notice this confusing expression. However, one is at a loss to understand when the Special Secretary with a downloaded version of Canadian Blood Banking Association was allowed to mislead the meeting, why had the Health secretary not wanted to know how the scenario is seen by Indian authorities on blood screening by NAT, specifically as India has a high prevalence of the killing viruses when Canada is almost free of these killers.

The Chilling Scenario in India

A research reported in Indian Journal of Medical Research (127, February 2008, pp 140-147) is captioned “Multicenter evaluation of individual donor nucleic acid testing (NAT) for simultaneous detection of human immunodeficiency virus-I & hepatitis B & C viruses in Indian blood donors”.

The research was based on the ground that “India has a high prevalence of HIV-I, hapatitis C & B viruses (HCV and HVB) in the blood donors but has yet to implement nucleic acid testing (NAT) in blood screening”. It had tested 12,224 samples along with their serological results obtained from representative eight blood banks in India and had submitted its findings to the Journal on 26 September 2006.

Luminaries in the field namely R.N.Makroo, N. Choudhury, L. Jagannathan, M. Parihar-Malhotra, V. Raina, R. K. Chaudhary, N. Marwaha, N. K. Bhatia, and A. K. Ganguli had conducted the research that the Department of Transfusion Medicine, Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, New Delhi, had patronized.

They reported, “Data from our study suggested that the NAT yield for all three viruses (HIV, HCV and HVB) in India could be 29 times higher than that observed in Japan, and higher for HIV-I alone. Our observed HIV-I yield was over 515 times that observed in the US and Canada, 89 times that observed in Italy”.

So, citing a report of Canada where the prevalence of HIV-I is 515 times less than India, to frustrate the “unanimous recommendation” of the earlier committee, is not only low on merit but also is a mischievous attempt to mislead the Government.

The study cited above has concluded that its “observed NAT yield for all three viruses was 1 in 1528. This study was conducted in 2006. Now the 1 has become 3 inasmuch as every blood unit is becoming 3 units of blood products viz. platelet, plasma and pack cell. This means, if the virus was escaping EISA test in one out of 1528 samples, it would be read as three escapes in 1528 samples. This estimation relates to 2006 when HIV-I was not as wide spread as it is today. So, in every 1528 cases, it can be safely said that multiples of three cases of HIV-I infection are not being detected through screening in ELISA method.

In Orissa, blood collection has reached 3 lakh units per year. Divided into the three categories, i.e. platelet, plasma and pack cell, the total collection becomes 9 lakh units. If the 2006 study is applied to this volume of 9 lakh units, at least 1767 transfusion takers are possibly getting AIDS infected with the virus escaping detection, as ELISA is not efficient to detect the virus during the “window period”.

Orissa has 81 blood banks out of which 56 are running under joint banner of the state government and Red Cross whereas only one blood bank functions directly under the Government. rest are privately managed. Out of all these 81 blood banks the ELISA facility is also not available in 23 blood banks. After we exposed the malady, the government has ascertained through review that these blood banks having no ELISA facility are using rapid test kits to detect AIDS virus! The meeting held on 24 July under chairmanship of the Health Secretary (where he was in fact not even present) has noted this in its resolution No.2 and suggested that “No blood bank should procure any rapid test kit for hepatitis B & hepatitis C and HIV at their level”. The rapid test is a method through which the viruses escape detection. Taken into consideration, this makes it clear that non-detection of AIDS virus is alarmingly rampant in Orissa.

Yet, the mandarines in the health department have kept the High Court oder for adoption of NAT PCR method inoperative and are conniving to go in litigation against the said order.

Just imagine, how unsafe is Orissa .

Left, the Last Hope, shouldn’t be Lost: India’s interest instead of Singh’s, is Essential

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

What the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh is doing after his office and the department under his control got exposed in the coal block scam by the Country’s highest Constitutional Authority on audit and accounts, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India?

He himself has been trying and encouraging his cabinet colleagues to damage the credibility of this Constitutional Authority, the CAG.

Such a disservice to the nation from the highest political authority is not found in any democracy.

The parties that practice economy of inequality like the BJP do not look at this intricate offense against India; because, besides being allies of the Congress in plutocracy, their role during the reign of Vajpayee was also averse to the primordial role of CAG in ensuring financial discipline a government is needed to adhere to.

But, the left parties in India too, are conspicuous by their silence over the biting reality that the Prime Minister’s attempt to denigrate the CAG is the most harmful assault on the very structure on which India’s Parliamentary Democracy stands.

Economy being the essence of the country’s life and the basis of all its activities, denigration of CAG by the Prime Minister would precipitate ruin of the credibility of the specific and the only instrument created by the founders of independent India to provide the Parliament with the necessary feedback to make the government answerable and to draw up direction of administration. So, more than the massive scam, the monstrosity of Prime Minister Singh’s attack on CAG deserves serious remedial measures.

The only remedy to this serious syndrome lies in removal of Dr. Singh from the Prime Minister post. The BJP is absolutely right in demanding his resignation as a prerequisite to discussion over the issue in Parliament. Otherwise, it would help Dr. Singh to escape by throwing further confusing tirades against the CAG, notwithstanding how harmful that would be to the economic management of the country.

In this critical juncture, instead of acting a go-between, the left should stand with the BJP in demands for Singh’s resignation. The rank opportunism of the smaller parties that have no adherence to any political economy and no track record of political probity, are susceptible to money-bag influence as has often been observed. Hence a great responsibility lies on the Left to help India get rid of the compradors and, in this respect, their plea for hearing the PM on the issue is of no real utility. If they are serious, they should strengthen the demand for Dr. Singh’s resignation. Dr. Singh’s leader Sonia Gandhi, who is on records to have asked her followers to “attack” the Opposition, must not be allowed to derail democracy by such tricks of browbeating. And, unless the Left becomes one with the BJP in refusing to be browbeaten, the country would suffer an injury that can hardly be tackled instantly.

It pains us recalling that the left’s alliance with Dr. Singh in the preceding Parliament had ushered in the era of India’s subjugation to USA hegemony, specifically in the matter of the nuke deal with that country. The gateway to a “bonanza” to US nuke traders, the Hyde Act was “signed, sealed” and made “irrevocable” by Dr. Singh behind back of the Parliament even though for signing the agreement, the prerequisite was that “the Indian Parliament must agree to the text” of the Hyde Act. The “text” of the Hyde act was not placed before the Parliament and the Left, despite vociferous protests against signing the nuke deal, had never made the point that the Parliament “must agree” or “disagree” to the “text” of the said Act. It had neither wanted the speaker to make the Parliament discuss the “text” of the Hyde Act in order to “agree” or “disagree” to the “text” thereof nor had it terminated its alliance with the Congress on the ground of treachery against the country. It continued its alliance with Dr. Singh, till, smaller fishes, sans any political ideology, were netted in to stand with him in his seeking of confidence in nuke deal context. Such acrobatics are of no gain for the country and it would be wrong again for the left to fall into the trap of debates on the coal scam before Dr. Singh, who has denigrating the CAG for the exposure of the scams in his report, resigns to ensure that through the debate, the Parliament does not become a platform of abuse of the apex auditor.

We have also the experience of how BJP acts in connivance with the Congress when thereby the underworld is sure to benefit. Jaswant Singh’s withdrawal of his motion on collapse of the terror funding bank BCCI is an instance. So, there is no reason for us to believe that the BJP is sincere in its demands for resignation of Dr. Singh.

But to us, resignation of Dr. Singh is the only way to ensure an appropriate appraisal of the CAG report.

When the country has been transformed into a plutocracy by the compradors in nexus with non-communists, the Left is the last hope for our people for revival of democracy and it should not make it the lost hope.

Hence, it is now the Left’s responsibility to strengthen every voice that demands for Dr. Singh’s resignation without bothering about from beneath which flag that voice emanates. Otherwise, it will fail in its duty to our innocent people that are uninformed, less informed, misinformed.

The Samaja in Death Bed: A Reader’s Suggestion Deserves Serious Attention

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

As we are one with the people of Orissa in collective agony over the danger that ‘The Samaja’ is facing, an esteemed reader of ours, Dr. Asoka Misra, has advanced a suggestion on how to save the newspaper of the people’s beloved Utkalmani from the jaws of the Servants of the People Society (SoPS).

It is a very valuable suggestion.

Commenting on our write up that, for the first time, raised a question on genuineness of the Will of Pt. Gopabandhu Das basing on which the SoPS has occupied The Samaja, Dr. Misra has said,

“ In criminology there is an axiom: “There is no absolute or perfect Crime ” meaning thereby, any act of crime is bound to leave a trail of evidence which needs to be detected only. Great that, finally orissamatters.com has been able to spot this fraud after many decades.…………

Now after this exposure if there is an iota of self-respect left with the SoPS, then the original WILL with the signature/thumb impression of Pt. Gopabandhu Das and witnesses thereto be published by them in The Samaja as soon as possible as suggested.

The Police and/or the appropriate authorities of Judicial system ( since the questionable WILL must have been fraudulently probated too ) of the State must take into cognizance of THE 420 of the Society concerned suo moto and IMMEDIATELY handover The Samaja Management to a NEW NGO under the direct supervision of the Hon’ble HC of Orissa, till the matter is settled lawfully in keeping with the high esteem and pride of THE ORIYAS,and unquestionably the founder of The Samaja, UTKALMANI PUNDIT GOPABANDHU DAS .

We have every reason to believe that the copy of the Will, published by us, is the genuine copy of the Will.

The Samaja had published this document as the “photo” of the Will. We have just investigated into it and have found that it is not a legally tenable document as neither Gopabandhu nor the witnesses have signed it. This leads to suspicion that Will was not even “dictated” by Gopabandhu as claimed.

From FIRs in Police Stations and from Cases in Civil Courts and from the report of investigation by a committee headed by Justice Arijit Pasayat, it transpires that there are members in SoPS who are involved in rampant misuse and misappropriation of the revenue generated by The Samaja and a document in our possession even shows that Manubhai Patel, whose locos standi as President of SoPS has been challenged by its life member-cum-President-in-charge K.C.Tripathy in a civil court, had misused the paper’s revenue in his personal political electioneering in his home province.

The Samaja needs immediate extrication from the most difficult situation it has fallen into. If the SoPS has occupied the paper and its press and properties fraudulently on the basis of a fake Will, the State Government should take over its management without loss of time and initiate every possible legal action against each and everybody involved with the crime.

Till the final decision as to who shall manage The Samaja is arrived at, its management should be handed over to the trade union of its employees, who have been producing the paper and bringing in its revenue through their dedicated and relentless service.

In this context, Dr. Misra’s suggestion deserves deep cogitation.

Manmohan Must Resign or else MPs Opposed to His Corruption Should: A Fresh Poll Alone Can Save India

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

With a Prime Minister as corrupt as Dr. Manmohan Singh, the parliamentary democracy in India has become a great farce and a tragedy.

With less than half of the amount exposed by the CAG to have been lost to the exchequer because of his administration’s nexus with the looters, the entire country could have been saved from draught for all time to come.

The monstrous loot has been carried out in the departments administered by Dr. Singh. It is wrong to say that the minister-in-charge is not corrupt when corruption is discernibly so rampant in the department(s) he rules over. Hence, with the mega mega scams unveiled by CAG, Dr. Singh deserves to be considered hugely corrupt.

It is sad that the he has been trying to denigrate the CAG in reaction to the exposure. He has even started alleging that the CAG is wrong in calculation! This nasty design against the apex audit authority would most severely jeopardize the future of India. So it is urgent to defeat this design. It is urgent for the people to ask Dr. Singh to quit and it is incumbent upon the Congress Party to replace Dr. Singh with another in the PM post.

But, instead of asking Dr. Singh to resign after the mega mega scams are exposed by the CAG, the lady autocrat of the ruling Congress, has asked her party to “attack” the Opposition, which is demanding for resignation of Dr. Singh from the PM post. Such posture is aimed at reducing the Parliament to a captive Parliament. It cannot be countenanced.

The Parliament needs be saved from the assault Sonial Ganghi has instigated her party MPs to perpetrate.

Like in nuke deal tangle, it is possible for Dr. Singh to overcome the impasse by cultivating support from any of ideology-less parties susceptible to extraneous influences. The looters of the exchequer can go to any extent to render the audit report inconsequential.

For saving the country from the looters, it is essential to have a fresh election to the Loksabha.

But with Sonia sycophant in President post, this is not to happen easily.

An environment needs be developed to force the President to accept popular demands for a fresh poll.

Therefore, it would be proper for any MP having an iota of responsibility towards the Republic to resign from the Parliament which alone can build up the necessary environment for a fresh election.

If the BJP is not making a drama of opposition as it seen doing on different occasions in the past, it should lead the Opposition by asking its MPs to resign from the Parliament and create a situation for a fresh election. The left parties at this juncture should stand with the BJP, if its MPs resign from Parliament, as it seems to be the only method to get rid of the gang of compradors whose flagrant violation of laws in allowing loot of the exchequer has been convincingly exposed by the constitutional authority of audit.

Compilation of Columns are of Essential Relevance to Living History: Soumya Ranjan Patnaik

Media magnet Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, whose ‘Sambad’ tops the major broadsheets of Orissa, observed that compilations of columns are of essential relevance to living history because they try to dwell between the lines of current events. This is why, as he has been marking, columns and comments have emerged as the principal object of interest of at least 40% of the newspaper readers, he said, while launching ‘Nai O Neta’, a compilation of published articles of Dr. Netajee Abhinandan, a faculty of Political Science in the Ravenshaw University, Cuttack.

The book launching was held last evening in the conference hall of Orissa Red Cross Bhawan, Bhubaneswar, with famous poet Rajendra Kishore Panda in the chair.

Panda, also a former top officer in IAS, delivered a highly scholarly exegesis on the art of column writing, even as, to him, insight into every facet of society with ability to editorialize the findings is what makes a columnist a reader’s choice in quest for information beyond the headlines’ beaten track.

The author introduced his book while looking back on evolution of his columns.

Dr. Rajendra Narayan Das stressed on readers’ participation in promotion of publication environment, when Pradyumna Satpathy, editor of Subarta, reviewed the book.

The audience comprising eminent authors and scholars was greeted with thanks by the publisher Nrusingh Prasad Mishra of Cuttack Students Store, when Dr. Bijayanand Singh had set the event to motion by welcoming the guests to the dais. Dr. Sanjay Satpathy co-ordinated the launching ceremony.

With a note of blessings from Dr. Debi Prasanna Pattanayak, the book consists of twenty nine published pieces on personal, socio-cultural, politico-economic topics as well as on issues germane to education, literature and civilian responsibility.

Editor's Picks

Oriya Language created Orissa and therefore Orissa must be ruled by Oriya Language

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik seems to have developed a wrong notion that governance of Orissa in Oriya depends upon his mercy. His press-note of December 17 and full page display advertisement in major broadsheets of today force us to arrive at this apprehension.

In his December 17 press note it was declared that he had held a meeting with the five members of the ministerial committee on that day for the purpose of “strictly implementing the Orissa Official Language Act, 1954 in official and non-official level” to facilitate which a website has been floated by the government. In the full page multi-color advertisement in broadsheet dailies today, this is intriguingly missing.

The advertisement is designed to tell the people that Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has taken historical steps to save and develop Oriya language, and has enumerated the steps he has taken. This is blatant lie. Neither he nor his government has executed any single item claimed to be “historical” in the official advertisement. The entire advertisement is nothing but false propaganda. What a shame it is, that, the people of Orissa are taken for granted by their Chief Minister! Read more →

Navakalevara: Legends and reality

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Legends are the most misguiding mischief aimed at superimposing lies on reality so that indigenous people of an occupied land are kept too dazzled to see the dark face of the rulers and the class of exploiters can keep its victims subjugated to its authority, while forcing them to forget the heroic history of evolution of their own philosophy of life, their own splendid spiritual realizations, their own socio-economic uniqueness, their own ancient culture, their own valorous past, their own way of social integration and their own civilization.

We see this mischief galore in the context of Navakalevara of SriJagannatha.

So, here, we are to rip apart the legends and bring the reality of the Navakalevara to light, as thereby alone we can reach the lost uniqueness of the people of Orissa.

We will use Puri Sankaracharya’s self-proclaimed authority over Navakalevara to proceed with our purpose.

  Read more →

Samaja in Maze of Forgery: Two former Ministers of Orissa – Lingaraj Mishra & Radhanath Rath forged the WILL of Gopabandhu; Both benefitted till their death; SoPS continues to Loot

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

The Oriya daily SAMAJA founded by late Utkalmani Pandit Gopabandhu Das, to which, out of their love and reverence for the great humanitarian leader, the people of Orissa had and have been giving their financial and moral support, is in a menacing maze of forgery and loot.

Sadly, two of Gopabandhu’s trusted men – Lingaraj Mishra and Radhanath Rath – who, because of being known so, had the opportunity of becoming cabinet ministers in Orissa, were the masterminds and/or makers of the forgery from which the paper is yet to be salvaged.

Both of them – Lingaraj and Radhanath – had partnered with each other in forging the last WILL of Gopabandhu to grab the Samaja, which being Gopabandhu’s paper was of superb credibility and the greatest political instrument of the day. They had performed this crime behind the screen of and in nexus with Servants of the People Society (SoPS), of which, while breathing his last, Gopabandhu was the Vice-President. Read more →