Jaipur: A 25-year-old contractual nursing staff member died Friday after allegedly consuming poison, hours after participating in a protest against the termination of nursing employees connected to Sawai Man Singh (SMS) Medical College hospital in the city.
The deceased was identified as Deepak Kharwal and was employed at the Mahila Chikitsalaya in Sanganeri Gate. Kharwal was among a group of nursing staff recently dismissed from their positions, leading to days of protests by affected workers. Colleagues reported that he participated in a demonstration at SMS Medical College Friday morning. Police said he left the protest site around 11:30am and returned to his rooms, where he apparently ingested the poison.
A group of friends went to meet Kharwal later in the day but received no answer to their persistent knocking. A nursing employee who was present there said they finally forced open the door and discovered Kharwal unresponsive. He was rushed to SMS Hospital, where he succumbed during treatment.
As news of the death spread, nursing staff at SMS hospital erupted in protest, gathering outside the emergency ward, chanting slogans and demanding action. The situation escalated, prompting police intervention to disperse the demonstrators and restore order.
Several Congress members, including MLAs Rafiq Khan and Amin Kagzi, along with Jaipur District Congress president Sunil Sharma and former minister Pratap Singh Khachariyawas, visited SMS Hospital following the incident. They alleged that the BJP government's policies were pushing people into unemployment and despair.
Protesters claimed thousands of nursing workers had been left without livelihoods after being abruptly laid off. Rahul Sharma, a contractual employee posted at JK Lone Hospital, said he and several colleagues who had been working on contract for the past five years were abruptly terminated recently.
Police are currently investigating the circumstances surrounding Kharwal's death, and his body was sent for a post-mortem examination.
