DDO hits guard with stick at Godhra hospital

Vadodara: Peeved at the inconvenience caused by the haphazard parking and traffic inside the Godhra civil hospital campus, the Panchmahal district development officer (DDO) allegedly hit a security guard at the Godhra civil hospital with a stick, raking up a major controversy.
DDO A J Shah had gone to the civil hospital at around 11am for personal work and while returning allegedly pulled out a stick from his official car and hit security guard Kanu Jadav with it. Jadav said that he was on duty at the hospital gate at that time.
“He (Shah) was on his way out when he broke the glass of a rickshaw on the hospital campus and then hit me with the stick. I believe he confused me with some other security guard who was involved in a tiff with him earlier. I tried to tell him that it was not me, but he did not listen,” Jadav said.
Shah later admitted to hitting a guard once with the stick.
“I had gone there for a check-up. It was very difficult to enter the hospital due to its parking chaos. We managed to do so with difficulty,” said Shah, adding that the situation was even worse on the way out.
“I had to get down from my car with a stick and clear space. I called for the guards, but they did not listen to me initially and came very late. They saw me but did not respond and even after seeing the chaos prevailing around me,” he said.
Shah denied that he had deliberately broken the glass pane of the auto-rickshaw. “It happened when I was swinging the stick to clear traffic. The vehicle tried to speed away and the stick hit it,” Shah said.
Meanwhile, the hospital’s class four staff have threatened to go on a strike in wake of the incident.
Civil surgeon at the hospital, Dr Mayuri Shah, said that the officials including those from the district administration were holding talks with the staff members.