Blast in Lahore leaves hospital founder’s family in Delhi anxious

“Though the hospital came under the Pakistan government,they did not change the name due to the respect Sir Ganga Ram commands for his work there,” his grandson Tej Ram,the present chairman of the Sir Ganga Ram Trust Society,said.

His younger brother Shiv Ram is vice-chairman of the trust.

While the hospital’s namesake in Delhi grew into a super-specialty under Sir Ganga Ram’s family,the original hospital — the Pakistan government took it over after the family migrated to India after Partition — has not met its potential,Sir Ganga Ram’s grandson-in-law Dr Anil Seth said.

“I visited the hospital three years ago,” Dr Seth,head of the outreach programme at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital,said. “Our hospital in Delhi is state-of-art,(but) the one in Pakistan requires a lot of work. The top brass at both hospitals keep in touch and we assist them in whatever way we can.”

Post-Partition,the family got land in Delhi in exchange of what it had left behind in Pakistan. “We set up the hospital to continue the work started by Sir Ganga Ram,” Dr Seth said. “It hurts that we cannot freely go back to Pakistan and offer our services there,for it still is home for our family.”

Sir Ganga Ram was a civil engineer and a leading philanthropist in the British-era India. He founded the Renala Hydral Power Station in Renala Khurd in 1925. Sir Ganga Ram died in London on July 10,1927.

Suspected Taliban militants had earlier in the day targetted Pakistan’s ISI’s provincial headquarters in Lahore,detonating an explosive-laden car that left at least 35 people dead and over 250 injured.