The Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) has formed a five-member committee to ascertain the circumstances leading to the installation of “hazardous” tele equipment on the Darjeeling District Hospital premised “without taking proper permission” from the competent authorities.

An order issued by Soumya Purkait, principal secretary of GTA, states that the chairperson of the committee will be Rajesh Chauhan, deputy chairman of GTA Sabha.

The other members include Samden Dupka, executive director, health department; Wangdi Dukpa, finance officer, GTA; Bimal Kumar Pradhan, superintending engineer, power department, GTA; and Debasish Chatterjee, deputy CMOH-III Darjeeling District Hospital.

Sources said Rajesh Chauhan, deputy chairman of GTA Sabha, who is looking into the administrative affairs of the Darjeeling District Hospital, came across a distributed antenna system (DAS) for mobile service operators beside the office issuing birth and death certificates on the hospital’s fourth floor while inspecting the building on June 24.

“I enquired about the equipment but I did not receive a satisfactory answer. Hence, I wrote to the principal secretary (GTA) apprising him of the situation. The officer visited the hospital on June 27 for an inspection,” said Chauhan.

DAS equipment enhances the signals.

Purkait in the order has stated that he too noticed the equipment “inside the hospital which is hazardous to the health of the patients, visitors and the employees of the hospital”.

“….it now becomes expedient to form a committee to ascertain the circumstances leading to the installation of the said tele equipment,” the order states.

The committee has been asked to submit the report within 15 days.

Questions are being raised about the manner in which the equipment were installed on the hospital premises, the people involved in authorising the same and whether any financial dealings were involved. The equipment were installed by Gurgaon-based Space Tele Pvt Ltd and Purkait has already flagged off several anomalies in the installation process through a letter on June 28.

The GTA official stated that the equipment were installed on December 16, 2020 without approval from competent authorities and that the MoU had been “executed in a plain paper”. “The pinpoint location/schedule of property under contract for installation is also missing,” the letter states.

The GTA states that the MoU between the company and “District Hospital Darjeeling” for 15 years cannot be considered legal tender.

Many are surprised that the irregularities were discovered four years after its installation.