Kota, Sep 24 Kota police has booked a Congress councillor on charges of making false promises and cheating, ahead of the September 25 mayoral elections, officials said on Thursday.
A team from the district medical department on Wednesday sealed the healthcare centre run by the councillor, citing a lack of qualifications for medical practice.
Speaking to local media, Siyaram Verma, a newly elected Congress councillor from ward 42, refuted the allegations, asserting political motives behind the crackdown.
He claimed he has a background in nursing and has operated the establishment for 20 years, providing basic services such as administering injections and drips based strictly on prescription slips issued by registered doctors.
Acting on the report by Kota chief medical health officer (CMHO), the police on Wednesday lodged a case against Verma under sections 318 (4), 319 (2), 271, 272 of the BNS and Section 15 of the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956, Kunhadi Circle Inspector Devesh Bhardwaj said.
A medical department team, acting on a complaint filed earlier on the same day, inspected Verma’s healthcare centre. The centre was found closed, following which health officials pasted a notice under the Clinical Establishments Act onto the premises before sealing it.
It was alleged in the complaint that the healthcare centre was operating without a valid medical degree or registration. The complaint further detailed that improper disposal of biomedical waste at the site posed a risk of spreading infectious diseases in the surrounding neighbourhood.
Following the inspection, the CMHO filed a report with Kunhadi police station and subsequently an FIR was registered against the Congress councillor on Wednesday evening.
Kota Congress city president Rakhi Gautam termed the action against the party councillor a mean “trick of pressure politics” by the BJP, already in majority with 57 ward councillors in the corporation board and claimed her party councillors and workers would never come under such pressure.
Gautam asserted that local authorities, administration, and financial resources are being used to exert political pressure and threaten Congress representatives with coercive actions against their personal businesses and establishments.
She also claimed Congress councillors were initially approached to switch allegiance and join the BJP.
Gautam characterised the sealing of Verma’s clinic as a direct outcome of this alleged “pressure politics” to influence the outcome of the upcoming municipal Mayoral and Deputy Mayoral elections.
Verma pointed out the clinic had remained non-operational since September 14 after the municipal election result was declared.
He further alleged that the action is a targeted attempt to exert pressure on Congress representatives ahead of the upcoming Mayor and Deputy Mayor elections.
Notably, BJP emerged as the party in the majority with 57 winning councillors against Congress’s 39 and 4 Independents in the 100-ward municipal corporation election held on Sept 11.
(PTI News)
