India: PM's security details allegedly cost a patient his life

The family of Verma, who was suffering from a major kidney ailment and had breathing trouble, alleged that their vehicle which had come from Ambala, 45 km from Chandigarh, was stopped at different gates of the institute by securitymen, leading to wastage of crucial time.

The family went from one person to the other begging for entry as Verma lost precious moments.

"We went to the emergency and high emergency wards. He held my hands and said I won't live for long. He was alive for an hour's time in PGI. We had a harrowing time for two hours. As tears dropped from his eyes, I understood that he had breathed his last," said victim's niece.

"Our uncle was crying, saying please save me. He was only 32. My humble request to the PM is that the family should be looked after," said Dheeraj Verma, victim's nephew.

Now Verma's family: His young widow and two children have no savings to fall back on, as Verma, a small businessman, was ailing for the last two years.

This is the text of the letter that the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh wrote to the family of a patient who died during his visit to Chandigarh on Tuesday:
 
Dear Smt Verma,

I am writing to you to express my profound sense of sadness at the death of your husband Shri Sumit Verma yesterday. I understand that he could not get access to the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Educationand Research, Chandigarh in time because of the restrictions in place for my visit there.This is something I deeply regret. I have issued instructions so that in future authorities are more sensitive to the concerns of the common man while imposing such restrictions for reasons of security.

With regards

Yours sincerely

Manmohan Singh
Prime Minister's letter

CNN-IBN: The Prime Minister has written to the family of the person who died because his security would not let him through into the hospital, apologising for what happened. The Prime Minister's security as well as the local police are under the scanner. Would you like to clarify as to what exactly happened?

S S SRIVASTAV: Incidentally what happened was that they traveled in a private vehicle. There was no ambulance or any such vehicle that moved from there and there were some traffic diversions. We normally stop the traffic for a minimum possible time and Chandigarh has the advantage that there are multiple roads and crossings. So we normally ensure that the stoppage time is of not more than 2-3 minutes and then again we try to clear off the traffic as a soon as possible. So this family apparently got delayed a little bit because of one of the stoppages and subsequently they reached the PGI and they were guided to the appropriate gate from where they were supposed to enter.