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Chandrakona 1 (Bengal): When this reporter visited her on July 23, Shampa Singh of the Chandrakona 1 block of Paschim Medinipur in West Bengal had initially been unable to speak.

Her anguish had been difficult to put into words. When she eventually did, here is what she said,”I watched my daughter die before my eyes, gasping for breath, deprived of oxygen and left without proper treatment.”

Shampa says she pleaded with the doctors who could not arrange for oxygen. After a wait of five hours, her son died, she said.

These events unfolded on the morning of July 16 at Khirpai Rural Hospital in Chandrakona-1 Block. Just four days earlier, a strikingly similar incident had been reported at Daspur Rural Hospital in Chandrakona- 2 Block, where a father and his son allegedly lost their lives after oxygen could not be made available in time.

The father, 59-year-old Sunil Pandit, and son lived nearly 30 kilometres from the Chandrakona 2 Block hospital, in Goyaldanga village.

According to locals, Sunil was an agricultural labourer who had finally secured a house under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana after years of repeated applications and efforts. Three months ago, at a time when the toilet attached to the house had been partially constructed, the work had had to stop because allocated government funds had been exhausted and the sharp rise in sand prices made it impossible for the family to continue the construction.

On July 12, Sunil resumed work on the unfinished toilet chamber. As a mason........

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