The Darjeeling district hospital has lodged a police complaint alleging theft of water and electricity from the healthcare facility.

Abu Sale Md. Mahfuz-ul Karim, the hospital superintendent, has said in his complaint that there is “a clear case of theft of water and electricity from Government Hospital”.

The complaint said the hospital plumber “has arranged pipe connection from outside of the hospital premises to hospital reservoir without any permission of the hospital authority”.

Besides, there is an allegation that electricity is drawn from the pump room at the hospital to operate a private pump on the premises.

Karim said the hospital has a reservoir to store 40,000 litres of water. “However, we had to buy water worth ₹70,000 last year,” said Karim.

Rajesh Chauhan, the deputy chairman of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) Sabha, said following complaints of water scarcity at the hospital, the GTA had approached the Darjeeling municipality.

“The municipality said the civic body was supplying water regularly. We started tracing the pipes and yesterday evening, we found that a pump was being used to draw water from the premises to houses, hotels and restaurants,” said Chauhan.

He directed the hospital authorities to start a departmental inquiry and suspend people concerned until the probe was completed.

“We also have information that electricity has been tapped from the hospital line,” alleged Chauhan.

The deputy chairman who is in charge of the Darjeeling district hospital requested local people to disconnect the illegal electricity and water connections on their own within a week.

“Else, we will take legal action,” said Chauhan.

A resident denied the allegation that there was large-scale theft of water and electricity from the hospital.

“About 20 years ago, water tanks were kept by the residents so that they could buy and sell water in times of crisis,” said the resident.

The resident admitted that the tanks were kept on the hospital premises and no formal permission had been taken. A colony of over 500 people has come up on the hospital land in the past three decades.

In July, Chauhan came across a distributed antenna system (DAS) for mobile service operators on the fourth floor of the hospital. There was no clarity on who installed the telecommunication system inside the hospital.

The hospital had no records of permission from competent authorities but electricity was being supplied to the instrument by the facility.

“We asked the telecom people to remove the instrument and they are doing so,”
said Chauhan.

Many were surprised that the equipment with potential health risks was discovered four years after its installation.

“The hospital infrastructure like generator, security was being used for this equipment of private agencies. A thorough investigation into the circumstances surrounding the installation of the equipment should be conducted and the investigation should determine how the installation was authorised and by whom,” Chauhan had
said earlier.

Chauhan had come across the DAS for mobile service operators beside the office issuing birth and death certificates on the hospital’s fourth floor. Chauhan was 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,” Chauhan had said.