RAJKOT, Nov 17: Recovery of five human foetuses on Monday from an insane woman has become the talk of the town. The police are yet to identity the hospital from the where the foetuses were found. Interrogation of the middle-aged woman has not helped as she kept speaking incoherently. However, inquiries revealed that the woman was regularly seen around a local hospital, rummaging the municipal garbage bin for left-overs. Some rag-pickers who hang around the hospital have also admitted to having seen some foetuses in the bin. But investigating officers said they were not sure whether the woman had picked up the foetuses, all of them wrapped in polythene bags, from this particular hospital premise.Municipal corporation officials stated that the Rajkot Municipal Corporation (RMC) was not responsible for the disposal of waste. Deputy Municipal Commissioner P P Vyas said, whenever a hospital wants to dispose off a foetus or body parts removed during surgery, the RMC gives permission to use thecrematorium.
``We have provided a dustbin at the hospital compounds. But, foetuses and other body parts must be disposed off by the hospitals through incinerators as per the rules,'' another official said.
It is learnt that almost all hospitals, including the civil hospital as well as private nursing homes, just dump waste, including foetuses, in RMC garbage bins. The waste is removed by the disposal staff to the municipal dump. ``This happens because none of the hospitals have incinerators,'' said Vyas.
However, Dr Dipti Shah of the Jenana Maternity Civil Hospital denied that they were dumping premature and aborted foetuses in dustbins.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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