Union Minister DV Sadananda Gowda has become the latest victim of demonetisation when a hospital in Mangaluru denied taking old currencies to settle the bill for the treatment of his brother, DV Bhaskar who later died.
Bhaskar was undertaking treatment at the Kasturba medical college in Mangaluru. He was suffering from jaundice and died due to complications in the hospital. But the hospital denied taking old currency notes to settle the bills and also refused to release the body till the bills were cleared through new notes.
After hearing the news of death of his brother, Sadananda Gowda rushed to Mangaluru from Delhi. The total bill for the treatment was around Rs 13 lakh, of which an advance of Rs 2.5 lakh was already paid.
The minister requested the hospital authorities to settle the bill with old currencies and release the body. But the KMC hospital did not pay any heed to his request.
Despite repeated requests when the hospital did not budge, Gowda explained them that the union government has allowed hospitals to take old currencies till November 25. However, the hospital officials said that it only applied to government hospitals and not to the private ones.
Eventually, Gowda asked hospital to give it in writing that they will not accept old notes and it was given by the hospital. The minister then went on to say, “this is how you behave with a central minister, what happens to the common man who comes for treatment at a private hospital like KMC?”
On which the KMC officials replied, “If you can give us an assurance in writing that the banks will accept that the old notes that you are using to settle the bills, we will take it.” But Sadananda Gowda couldn’t assure that.
Eventually, the central minister settles his bill by paying with a cheque and released his brother’s body for the last rites.
He later, told BJP local leader Krishna Palemar to prepare a report on the hospital and how people are troubled as private hospital are not taking old notes.
