Baisakhi Ram, a resident of Barasat’s Pannajheel area in North 24-Parganas, was admitted to the district hospital last Thursday. She gave birth to a girl on Friday morning.

The infant was kept under medical supervision inside incubator for special medical care.

When, the nurses brought the infant’s body to her mother Baisakhi she almost fainted after looking at her dead infant’s face. The infant’s left eye was badly nibbled by a rat and there were scratches all over her face.

As news spread, locals and a few relatives staged an agitation in front of the hospital superintendent’s chamber alleging that the infant died after being nibbled by rats.

The hospital superintendent, Ranjan Majumder, later apologised to the parents and relatives saying that it was a very shameful incident. He, however, maintained that the infant had died before being nibbled by rats and a three-member inquiry committee has been formed to probe the incident.

This is not the first time that such an allegation has been raised.

Similar incidents have occurred in hospital in the past also. Last year, a patient was bitten by a cat on the hand. The hospital refuses to learn from such incidents. Earlier, many patients have died here allegedly due to medical negligence.

Locals allege that the hospital has become one of the worst government-run district hospitals. It is crippled with lack of medical infrastructure. Last year all the four operation theatres in the hospital were closed for about 20 days for disinfecting purposes.

Locals allege that there are a large number of touts in the hospital. “Last year some children died here due to medical negligence. Touts beat up local journalists who came to gather information on the deaths,” said a local.

The hospital superintendent Majumder had conceded at that time that they had heard about the allegations of touts operating in the hospital.