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| Suresh Bhujel |
Calcutta, June 11: Suresh Bhujel today became the second casualty of a constable recruitment test conducted last week in 40-degree heat, forcing the police brass to revise its screening schedule for the remaining candidates.
Like Abhishek Pal of Noapara, Suresh, a 24-year-old from 16th Mile in Kalimpong, didn’t regain consciousness after slumping to the ground midway through a 1.6km sprint that he was required to complete within six-and-a-half minutes. He died at 5.45am.
He and Abhishek had been admitted to SSKM Hospital with symptoms of heat stroke on Wednesday afternoon. Abhishek died that very night amid allegations that delay in medical treatment was as much the cause of death as the searing heat that had knocked him out.
The police suspended the remainder of the recruitment tests till June 20 but the decision to alter the timings apparently wasn’t taken until today. “We have decided that no candidate will be made to run between 11am and 3pm. The heat is unbearable at mid-day, so there will be a break during that period,” said a senior officer at Lalbazar, the police headquarters.
The screening tests will resume late afternoon, as is the system followed by the army and the paramilitary forces.
“If required, the tests can continue till evening. If a candidate scheduled to take the test on a particular day can’t be accommodated for paucity of time, we will shift him or her to the schedule for the next day,” the officer said.
The police brass have also decided to improve medical and other facilities at the venue. There was allegedly no doctor at the test venue, the Royal Calcutta Turf Club, last Wednesday because of a manpower shortage at the police hospital.
The Telegraph had highlighted how a paramedic and some police personnel took Abhishek to SSKM Hospital in an ambulance around 2.45pm that day, after which he had to wait three hours to be shifted to the intensive care unit.
The police have since tied up with Fortis Hospital to deploy a medical team prepared to handle any emergency during the remaining days of the recruitment drive. “The hospital has given us in writing that a team led by a senior doctor will be there every day,” an officer said.
“The hospital will also send an ambulance to back up the one we have.”
The RCTC management has requested the police to shift its recruitment drive elsewhere to allow it to prepare for the Monsoon Races that start on July 10, but Lalbazar has apparently decided to stay put.
“There was a proposal to shift the venue to Rabindra Sarovar. But that would mean making the candidates circle the stadium several times to complete running 1,600 metres. We didn’t want to risk that because of medical reasons, so the plan to shift was shelved,” an officer said.
The announcements coincided with Abhishek’s father Naba Kumar Pal and sister Madhurima meeting chief minister Mamata Banerjee and police commissioner R.K. Pachnanda today.
“We wanted changes (in the recruitment tests) and it is good to see the police doing the needful. But it’s unfortunate that two lives had to be lost for this to happen,” said Neeladri Sekhar Ghosh, one of Abhishek’s cousins who had accompanied the family to Writers’ Buildings and Lalbazar.
Suresh’s elder brother Suren was inconsolable when he received his sibling’s body in the presence of senior police officers. Additional commissioner of police Debasish Roy promised to look into his request to give a job to one of his other siblings, all of whom live in 16th Mile village of Kalimpong, a source said.(TT)
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