Health dept to probe kidney sale

MANGALURU: The department of health and family welfare has taken due cognizance of the recent 'sale' of kidney by a woman in Magadi to settle her debts. Minister for health and family welfare U T Khader said that the Zonal Coordination Committee of Karnataka (ZCCK) for organ transplant will be directed to conduct an inquiry into the lapses, if any, by the local committee which permitted the transplantation of kidney to a woman from a donor in Mysuru on June 26. Khader explained that since the assembly session was underway at Belagavi when the incident came to light, he was not able to pay due attention to the issue. Describing it as a serious incident, Khader said that besides the police investigation, ZCCK too will carry out an independent probe. Police are already investigating the role played by Srinivas, a resident of Cubbonpet in Bengaluru in this 'sale'. Since all requests for organ transplants were coming to ZCCK and the committee, in turn, took time to approve it, a decision was taken after he took over the ministry to decentralize permission for transplants to the local committees. Local committees were set up in select hospitals which have facilities for conducting organ transplant. Observing that this process has worked well and benefited many patients, Khader said that the government will not allow anyone to subvert it for any reason whatsoever. Srinivas was accused of creating false documents to show Shashikala, a resident of Magadi in Ramanagara district, as his wife during the verification by police. The verification was for transplanting Shashikala's kidney into Srinivas' mother. Shashikala, 32, is said to have agreed to sell her kidney for Rs 3 lakh, as she needed it to settle debts incurred while contesting theGP polls. -TOI