Record room haunted: Hospital’s ‘excuse’ to avoid RTI queries

A Madhya Pradesh hospital has come up with a bizarre reply for not being able to answer queries asked by RTI activists for several years now: Gwalior’s Gajra Raja Medical College (GRMC) says that the hospital’s record room is haunted.

The activists want to know about the alleged irregularities in MBBS admission in GRMC. Activists allege that outsiders got seats in domicile quota fraudulently. Pankaj Jain, a health activist, has been searching for documents since the last three years. Talking to the Times of India regarding the matter, he said that earlier, they said that the CBI has confiscated the documents. After this, they said that the clerk who handled it has been arrested by the CBI. Now, they are saying that a clerk has committed suicide in that room and now that room is haunted and they are afraid to open the lock of the room.

Dr Sameer Gupta, Dean of GRMC, told Times of India that “this matter is not in my knowledge. I will get it checked”.

Pankaj Jain also recounted the story of an activist from Delhi. He said that the Delhi-based RTI activist sought record of admission of MBBS batch in 1994 through RTI in September 2018. The medical college has refused to give the information, saying that they have no record of 1994 MBBS batch.

Pankaj Jain further explained that the activist approached the State Information Commission regarding the matter where hearing was held four times, but the GRMC has not given any information till now despite agreeing before the High Court. The commission disposed of the complaint in January 2021 without any action.