# Census paused in Manipur, a govt hospital's failure, and High Court raps UP

An episode of [3 Things](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1406730235), 8 Sep 2026, 27 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/74975810/3_things_2026_september_8_v1.mp3

First, we speak to The Indian Express’ Deeptiman Tiwary about why the Census has been halted in Manipur, the demand from Meitei and Naga groups for an NRC, and how questions of migration, citizenship and delimitation have deepened existing ethnic divisions. Next, we speak to The Indian Express’ Tabshir Shams about serious gaps at the Delhi State Cancer Institute, where staff shortages and unused medical equipment are forcing patients to pay privately for essential tests and medicines while facing dangerous delays in treatment. (11:30) And in the end, we examine the Allahabad High Court’s decision to quash the NSA detention of 25-year-old Aakriti Chaudhary, award her compensation and issue a sharp warning against bureaucratic overreach and the suppression of peaceful protest. (23:30) Hosted by Ichha Sharma Produced and written Shashank Bhargava and Ichha Sharma Edited and mixed by Suresh Pawar

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: In today's episode, we look at Delhi where an Indian
[0:03] Speaker 1: Express investigation has found serious gaps at the government's largest
[0:08] Speaker 1: cancer hospital, forcing patients to pay privately for tests and
[0:13] Speaker 1: medicines despite expensive equipment lying unused. We also take a
[0:18] Speaker 1: look at Uttar Pradesh where the Allahabad High Court has
[0:21] Speaker 1: quashed the NSA detention of a young protestor and sharply
[0:26] Speaker 1: criticise the misuse of state power. But we begin today
[0:30] Speaker 1: with Manipur, where the census has been halted after demands
[0:34] Speaker 1: for an NRC.
[0:34] Speaker 2: As many of you may already know, the census is
[0:40] Speaker 2: currently being conducted across the country.
[0:54] Speaker 1: An exercise that is taking place in India after 15 years.
[0:58] Speaker 1: But yesterday, this exercise was halted in Manipur after several
[1:03] Speaker 1: civil society groups demanded that an NRC should be conducted
[1:07] Speaker 1: in the state first. The NRC, or the National Register
[1:11] Speaker 1: of Citizens, essentially is an exercise to determine who is
[1:16] Speaker 1: a citizen of the country.
[1:17] Speaker 3: And who isn't.
[1:19] Speaker 1: But in a state where the ethnic conflict that began
[1:22] Speaker 1: in 2023 is still ongoing, even this demand has become
[1:26] Speaker 1: a point of division along ethnic lines. While Maitis and
[1:30] Speaker 1: several Naga groups have backed the NRC process, the Kukizomi
[1:35] Speaker 1: community has strongly opposed it. So to understand the reasons
[1:39] Speaker 1: behind the demand and opposition, my colleague Shashank Bhargav speaks
[1:43] Speaker 1: to the Indian Express's Deeptiman Tiwari.
[1:46] Speaker 4: Deeptiman, tell us what is the reason that the Maithis
[1:50] Speaker 4: and Naga groups want NRC to take place before the census?
[1:55] Speaker 5: So, you know, this demand actually started since 2021-22, where
[1:59] Speaker 5: they specifically both United Naga Council and Maitreyi civil society
[2:04] Speaker 5: groups like the Kokomi, they started demanding that there should
[2:08] Speaker 5: be a National Register of Citizens exercise.
[2:11] Speaker 6: Done in Manipur.
[2:13] Speaker 5: And this was largely sort of understood successfully. to be
[2:17] Speaker 5: directed towards the Kukizumi population because both the Nagas and
[2:22] Speaker 5: Maithais argued that, you know, since the conflict in Myanmar
[2:26] Speaker 5: and the fighting that started in the Chin state, people
[2:29] Speaker 5: who share ethnic similarities with the Kukizumi populations across the
[2:33] Speaker 5: border in India and they are both in Mizoram and Manipur,
[2:36] Speaker 5: So a large number of them have sort of, you know,
[2:39] Speaker 5: escaped the country, basically escaping persecution and come. Some of
[2:43] Speaker 5: them are living in shelters in Mizoram, but many in Manipur,
[2:47] Speaker 5: you know, have established their own villages and, you know,
[2:49] Speaker 5: they're living in citizens. So these people should be identified
[2:52] Speaker 5: and sort of sent back or at least, you know,
[2:55] Speaker 5: identified and given.
[2:56] Speaker 6: Shelter like a refugee rather than, you know, staying there
[2:59] Speaker 6: as citizens.
[3:01] Speaker 4: And of course, when we talk about this point, this
[3:03] Speaker 4: is a fault line that runs quite deep between the
[3:05] Speaker 4: Mehtes and the Kukiz, right? Because like you mentioned, Kukizos
[3:10] Speaker 4: share their ethnicity with the people in Myanmar.
[3:14] Speaker 5: So the problem is not just a 2021-22 problem. It's
[3:18] Speaker 5: a problem which has been going on for decades in Manipur.
[3:22] Speaker 5: Maiteis and Nagas tend to argue often that they are
[3:27] Speaker 5: the actual inheritors of the Manipur land. And they say
[3:30] Speaker 5: that it is Kukiz who came much later and they
[3:35] Speaker 5: inhabited the hills and, you know, they are now calling
[3:37] Speaker 5: the shots and it is not right.
[3:39] Speaker 6: Our right is first on this land.
[3:41] Speaker 5: And, you know, in that atmosphere, we all remember that
[3:45] Speaker 5: the May 2023 violence erupted in Manipur and, you know,
[3:49] Speaker 5: more than 200 people were killed.
[3:50] Speaker 6: Thousands and thousands have been displaced.
[3:52] Speaker 5: And the state has been both demographically and psychologically separated
[3:57] Speaker 5: into two parts of, you know, the valley people and
[3:59] Speaker 5: the hill people, metais and kukis. So all of that
[4:03] Speaker 5: has happened in this backdrop of who belongs to Manipur, actually.
[4:08] Speaker 5: Both United Aga Council and COCOMI had petitioned the government
[4:12] Speaker 5: on this and the resolution was actually passed in 2022 itself.
[4:17] Speaker 6: In Manipur Assembly.
[4:18] Speaker 5: Obviously, some people will argue that the assembly itself is
[4:21] Speaker 5: dominated by Maitreyi politicians.
[4:23] Speaker 6: So what is the big deal about it?
[4:25] Speaker 5: Cookies often argue that, look, we may have come from,
[4:28] Speaker 5: you know, outside or, but that has been hundreds of
[4:32] Speaker 5: years ago. So how far do you want to go
[4:34] Speaker 5: back as to who belongs to Manipur? Some people argue that,
[4:37] Speaker 5: you know, that way no American is American because all
[4:40] Speaker 5: Americans came from outside. So who does America belong to?
[4:43] Speaker 5: It only belongs to Native Americans. So those kind of
[4:45] Speaker 5: arguments are made from both sides. And that is how
[4:49] Speaker 5: the ethnic tension in Manipur has been shaped over decades.
[4:53] Speaker 4: And how much of this demand for an NRC also
[4:56] Speaker 4: has to do with the fact that this ethnic conflict
[4:59] Speaker 4: in the state has been going on and it has
[5:03] Speaker 4: displaced thousands of people in the state?
[5:06] Speaker 6: Of course.
[5:07] Speaker 5: In fact, there have been representations to the government to
[5:09] Speaker 5: that effect that, you know, how do you do a
[5:12] Speaker 5: house listing in Manipur when houses of people have been
[5:16] Speaker 5: burned down, villages have been wiped out?
[5:18] Speaker 6: So how do you do a house listing?
[5:20] Speaker 5: And you do a census in that kind of situation
[5:23] Speaker 5: where people are living in camps and, you know, thousands
[5:26] Speaker 5: and thousands on either side. You know, Maitreya had to
[5:28] Speaker 5: flee the hills. and cookies had to flee the valley.
[5:31] Speaker 5: In such a situation, how do you conduct a census?
[5:35] Speaker 5: Will it, you know, give you the correct, you know,
[5:38] Speaker 5: geographical landscape of the state or will you solidify this
[5:42] Speaker 5: demographic separation that has taken place? So what kind of
[5:46] Speaker 5: data will come out of it? So there has been
[5:49] Speaker 5: a demand in Manipur that unless displaced people are resettled.
[5:54] Speaker 6: You know, there is no point of doing a census.
[5:57] Speaker 4: Okay, so you have these two groups that are opposing
[6:00] Speaker 4: the census, the Maites and the Naga groups. You know,
[6:04] Speaker 4: they're saying that before you count how many people live here,
[6:06] Speaker 4: you should first determine who is a citizen and who's
[6:10] Speaker 4: not by doing the NRC. And they're saying this, again,
[6:14] Speaker 4: because of the kind of migration that has taken place
[6:17] Speaker 4: from Myanmar and because of the ongoing conflict. What is
[6:22] Speaker 4: the reason that the Kukizos are... opposing this? How are
[6:26] Speaker 4: they articulating their concern?
[6:29] Speaker 5: Obviously, they see that this entire demand for NRC is
[6:33] Speaker 5: actually directed towards them. And both Maitreya and Nagas are
[6:38] Speaker 5: demanding because it is a belief among the cookies that
[6:42] Speaker 5: they are going to be politically targeted at the end
[6:44] Speaker 5: of the day.
[6:45] Speaker 6: And we all know.
[6:46] Speaker 5: That NRC has not been a foolproof exercise even in Assam. So,
[6:51] Speaker 5: you know, once you do that exercise, you do not
[6:54] Speaker 5: know who is going to get left out of it. Also,
[6:57] Speaker 5: their argument is that, look, this border which has been
[7:01] Speaker 5: drawn between Myanmar and India has separated ethnically similar people,
[7:07] Speaker 5: you know, into two countries. And this was not a
[7:10] Speaker 5: choice that was made by the people. This was a
[7:13] Speaker 5: line that was drawn by the British. And why should
[7:16] Speaker 5: people who have familial ethnic ties and belong to the
[7:20] Speaker 5: same sort of gene pool and cultural group, why should
[7:24] Speaker 5: they be separated like this? Obviously, the laws of the
[7:27] Speaker 5: land have to be respected and all that. But this
[7:30] Speaker 5: entire matter should be dealt with in that perspective rather
[7:34] Speaker 5: than otherizing the entire community.
[7:37] Speaker 4: And the census we know is also tied to the
[7:39] Speaker 4: delimitation exercise. How much is that factor a part of
[7:44] Speaker 4: this demand for the NRC and its opposition also?
[7:49] Speaker 6: Oh, very much.
[7:49] Speaker 5: Because the last delimitation that happened in Manipur was in 1973.
[7:54] Speaker 5: Since then, there has been no delimitation in Manipur, even
[7:58] Speaker 5: though there has been a census after that. In 2001,
[8:02] Speaker 5: also there was a census and there was an exercise
[8:05] Speaker 5: for delimitation, but that did not happen. It did not
[8:08] Speaker 5: materialize at that time itself. You know, there was this
[8:11] Speaker 5: thing that, you know, the equations in the assembly would
[8:15] Speaker 5: change because both Naga and Kuki populations have since increased significantly.
[8:22] Speaker 5: So currently the Manipur assembly has a ratio of 60
[8:26] Speaker 5: is to 40. That is 60% of the seeds are
[8:31] Speaker 5: in the valley. Valley is dominated by Maithais. And 40%
[8:34] Speaker 5: seats are in the hills, which is shared by both
[8:38] Speaker 5: Nagas and Kukis. Now, the fear is that, you know,
[8:42] Speaker 5: as in when a census happens, so it will give
[8:44] Speaker 5: the correct figure of, you know, populations of the three communities. Now,
[8:48] Speaker 5: in case it happens, appears that, you know, the Naga
[8:53] Speaker 5: and Kuki population has increased proportionately more than Maitai population,
[8:57] Speaker 5: then you will have to reject that proportion. And there
[9:00] Speaker 5: is a fear that, you know, this 60-40 could change
[9:04] Speaker 5: to 35-25 or even 30-30. Now, if that happens, the
[9:08] Speaker 5: advantage that Maitais have in the assembly currently will be
[9:12] Speaker 5: adversely impacted to a great extent. Currently, it's almost like
[9:17] Speaker 5: because of the ratio that is there, there is almost
[9:20] Speaker 5: call the shots in the assembly. So that is a
[9:23] Speaker 5: fear among the political class in the valley.
[9:27] Speaker 6: So one of the reasons many.
[9:28] Speaker 5: People cite for the opposition to a census and the
[9:33] Speaker 5: demand for NRC, that you first identify how many illegal
[9:37] Speaker 5: immigrants are there because Obviously, many people argue in the
[9:42] Speaker 5: valley that, you know, Kuki population has increased because of
[9:44] Speaker 5: illegal immigration.
[9:45] Speaker 6: Of course, populations increase for a variety of reasons.
[9:48] Speaker 5: And, you know, illegal immigration, maybe one of the factors
[9:51] Speaker 5: cannot be the only factor. All these things have come
[9:54] Speaker 5: together basically behind the demand for NRC.
[9:57] Speaker 4: Also, Deeptiman, in the neighboring state of Assam, NRC was
[10:02] Speaker 4: a long-standing demand. Does the demand for an NRC go
[10:07] Speaker 4: very far back for Manipur?
[10:09] Speaker 5: No, actually, specifically demanding NRC is 21-22 when there were
[10:15] Speaker 5: representations from groups for NRC in Manipur. So the immediate
[10:19] Speaker 5: trigger was the trouble in Myanmar and influx of immigrants
[10:23] Speaker 5: from there. And, you know, the way Valley politics was
[10:26] Speaker 5: shaping up, at that time, sort of, you know, against
[10:30] Speaker 5: illegal immigration, public cultivation, drug problem, you know, illegal arms trafficking.
[10:35] Speaker 5: We have also seen free movement regime being paused and
[10:38] Speaker 5: then being abolished, then being regulated in a particular manner.
[10:42] Speaker 5: So all of that has happened in proximate past rather
[10:46] Speaker 5: than very far back. Assam is a different case altogether.
[10:50] Speaker 5: There has been a massive agitation in Assam. And the
[10:54] Speaker 5: kind of problem that Assam faced was also very, very unique.
[10:58] Speaker 5: And that is why the NRC in Assam was conducted
[11:00] Speaker 5: through a special insertion of legislation in the law.
[11:05] Speaker 6: And it was monitored by the Supreme Court.
[11:07] Speaker 5: Rest of the NRC is going to be conducted through
[11:10] Speaker 5: the existing law under the Citizenship Act and will have
[11:14] Speaker 5: to be a decision that has to be taken by
[11:16] Speaker 5: the centre. Whether to conduct a state-specific NRC or to
[11:21] Speaker 5: go for a nationwide NRC, the idea fundamentally is for
[11:25] Speaker 5: a nationwide NRC as the statute exists.
[11:28] Speaker 6: But of course, it has to be a government's call.
[11:36] Speaker 1: And next, we talk about Delhi, where a government cancer
[11:39] Speaker 1: hospital meant to offer affordable care is failing its patients.
[11:45] Speaker 1: The Delhi State Cancer Institute, or DSCI, is the Delhi
[11:50] Speaker 1: government's largest cancer facility and is meant to be a
[11:54] Speaker 1: lifeline for patients who cannot afford private treatment. But an
[11:58] Speaker 1: Indian Express investigation has found that patients are increasingly being
[12:03] Speaker 1: sent outside the hospital for medicines and tests forcing them
[12:08] Speaker 1: to pay thousands of rupees at private centres. And this
[12:12] Speaker 1: is not because the hospital never had the equipment. Records
[12:15] Speaker 1: actually show that DSCI has high-end machines, including machines for
[12:21] Speaker 1: PET-CT scans, that have been lying unused for years because
[12:26] Speaker 1: of staff shortages and lack of qualified manpower.
[12:31] Speaker 7: And... For cancer to be treated, one of the most
[12:34] Speaker 7: important part is the test. How would you know which
[12:37] Speaker 7: type of cancer is it? How would you know what's
[12:39] Speaker 7: the stage of cancer? How would the doctors know and
[12:42] Speaker 7: how would they then treat the patient?
[12:45] Speaker 1: That's the Indian Express's Tabshir Shams, who led the investigation.
[12:49] Speaker 7: For the paper. And most of the testing facilities in
[12:53] Speaker 7: the DSCI, the Cancer Institute, is not working. And one
[12:58] Speaker 7: of the most crucial tests is PET-CT. It's the whole
[13:02] Speaker 7: body scan, a CT scan. And it is normally if
[13:05] Speaker 7: you go to a private cancer hospital, the first test
[13:09] Speaker 7: that they would prescribe you is a PET-CT if you
[13:12] Speaker 7: have potential cancer. So in this hospital, that machine has
[13:16] Speaker 7: been not in use for almost.
[13:18] Speaker 3: 10 years now.
[13:19] Speaker 7: So for the basic tests for cancer and also for
[13:23] Speaker 7: basic treatments of cancer that like radiotherapy and other treatments,
[13:28] Speaker 7: the patients have to go to private centers. They have
[13:30] Speaker 7: to go to private centers and pay the fees and
[13:33] Speaker 7: the whatever private fees is the standard cost is for
[13:36] Speaker 7: their treatment. And these can range from 10,000 to 50,000.
[13:39] Speaker 7: In some cases, radiotherapy can cost you around 5 lakh,
[13:44] Speaker 7: 10 lakh also, a full radiotherapy course could cost you.
[13:49] Speaker 1: Tabshir says that parts of the hospital have also been
[13:52] Speaker 1: left abandoned. For instance, the second floor section that once
[13:56] Speaker 1: functioned as a daycare chemotherapy unit, treating more than 150
[14:00] Speaker 1: patients a day, now lies shut with unused beds and
[14:04] Speaker 1: dust collecting on the floor. And the larger problem is staffing.
[14:08] Speaker 1: In his piece for the paper, Tabshir highlights that more
[14:12] Speaker 1: than 40% of DSCI's sanctioned posts are vacant. And doctors
[14:17] Speaker 1: say this has compromised treatment and increased waiting time for patients.
[14:23] Speaker 3: So I think that is where the issue of coordination is.
[14:27] Speaker 7: So for a full-fledged cancer care hospital, which DSCI was
[14:32] Speaker 7: visioned to become, you should obviously procurement, technology procurement is
[14:36] Speaker 7: an important component. But another important component is the manpower,
[14:41] Speaker 7: is the people, are the people, the doctors, the technicians,
[14:44] Speaker 7: the other staff that would be handling those machines. Maybe
[14:47] Speaker 7: this component did not catch up to the technological part
[14:51] Speaker 7: of it.
[14:51] Speaker 3: And when the machines were procured, yes, the machines came.
[14:55] Speaker 7: And an important part of machines are they have a
[14:58] Speaker 7: depreciation element to it. They depreciate every year and the
[15:02] Speaker 7: consumable items also depreciate. So if you don't have the manpower,
[15:07] Speaker 7: if you don't have the doctors, the technician, the experts
[15:10] Speaker 7: to run those machines, obviously you will not be able
[15:13] Speaker 7: to use the machines for long. And gradually this supply
[15:16] Speaker 7: of manpower hit the hospital. And as we see the
[15:20] Speaker 7: results right now.
[15:22] Speaker 1: Besides this, another crisis that is disguised as temporary relief
[15:27] Speaker 1: has also hit the facility. This is the recent appointments
[15:31] Speaker 1: for senior residents just for 44 days which is extendable
[15:35] Speaker 1: under rules. Essentially forming a system that doctors say creates
[15:40] Speaker 1: instability and pushes young oncologists toward more secure jobs.
[15:47] Speaker 7: Let's say if you're a cancer doctor, if you're an
[15:49] Speaker 7: oncology expert, why would you go to a hospital that
[15:53] Speaker 7: is only giving you job security for 44 days? And
[15:57] Speaker 7: also the salaries are not so competitive. If you go
[16:00] Speaker 7: to a private hospital, they would give you more salary.
[16:02] Speaker 7: They would give you job security and other benefits also.
[16:06] Speaker 7: So these are also important. Maybe the doctors need better security,
[16:12] Speaker 7: better job security, better working condition, working environment.
[16:16] Speaker 3: So that they can join the cancer institute.
[16:20] Speaker 1: Tabshir tells us that the effect on care is direct.
[16:24] Speaker 1: A senior doctor that he spoke with said that treatment
[16:27] Speaker 1: is compromised and turnaround time has increased.
[16:31] Speaker 7: To take the example of Sarita she came from Murshidabad
[16:36] Speaker 7: she was about 60 and she basically was undergoing treatment
[16:40] Speaker 7: there in Bengal and she shifted to Delhi a few
[16:44] Speaker 7: like one or two years ago she was living with
[16:46] Speaker 7: her son who is a daily wage worker so he
[16:49] Speaker 7: earns about around 10-12 thousand a month and now the
[16:54] Speaker 7: day she came to Delhi Cancer Institute she was prescribed
[16:58] Speaker 7: a PET CT and at the counter when her her
[17:02] Speaker 7: son and they went to the counter and told them, see,
[17:05] Speaker 7: I have prescribed this test and please do the test.
[17:08] Speaker 3: For my mother.
[17:09] Speaker 7: The people at the counter told the guy that these
[17:12] Speaker 7: tests are not done in the hospital. You have to
[17:14] Speaker 7: go and do it in a private center. Then he
[17:17] Speaker 7: asked her, what is the cost of that? The guy
[17:19] Speaker 7: told him it's 8,000 to 10,000 rupees.
[17:22] Speaker 3: And he was shocked. He was like, it is what
[17:24] Speaker 3: I earn in a month.
[17:26] Speaker 7: How can I afford a test that will drain the
[17:29] Speaker 7: whole month's earning of mine? Basically, people are very helpless.
[17:34] Speaker 7: People are struggling to find the chemotherapy medicines that are
[17:37] Speaker 7: not available. So a daily wage worker or somebody who's
[17:40] Speaker 7: earning less than 2-3 lakhs, which is the average earning
[17:44] Speaker 7: for 80-90% population of India. So for them, if you
[17:49] Speaker 7: get cancer, I think you're doomed, basically. Because you can't
[17:52] Speaker 7: afford cancer treatment medicines, you can't afford cancer treatment drugs.
[17:56] Speaker 7: And palliative care and all the other care and diet,
[17:59] Speaker 7: all it comes later on.
[18:01] Speaker 1: Now, cancer patients are repeatedly described as fighting against time.
[18:07] Speaker 1: And so, medically, a two-week delay for a biopsy, a
[18:10] Speaker 1: delayed scan, or for that matter, a postponed radiation can
[18:14] Speaker 1: actually be very dangerous in cancer care.
[18:18] Speaker 7: So, for instance, we talk about the PET-CT. PET-CT scan
[18:23] Speaker 7: is a very important component of the diagnosis of the cancer.
[18:28] Speaker 7: So if you delay your PET-CT, then there will be
[18:31] Speaker 7: delay in your cancer, basically the detection of your cancer,
[18:35] Speaker 7: the level of a cancer. Then another machine was cyclotron,
[18:39] Speaker 7: the nuclear. Basically, it is radiotherapy. It releases short wave isotopes,
[18:44] Speaker 7: which effectively targets only the cancer affected areas and leaves
[18:50] Speaker 7: the healthy.
[18:51] Speaker 3: Tissues of your body.
[18:53] Speaker 7: For that, if that machine or if that treatment you
[18:55] Speaker 7: were to get somewhere else, it will cost you lakhs
[18:58] Speaker 7: and lakhs of rupees. And that is obviously that is
[19:01] Speaker 7: bad for the patient.
[19:03] Speaker 1: Another doctor, Tabshir says, recalled that DSCI's strongest years were
[19:09] Speaker 1: between 2006 and 2015, when the institute drew patients from
[19:14] Speaker 1: neighboring states, but also abroad, and that there were plans
[19:17] Speaker 1: to add 1,000 beds and make it the largest cancer
[19:21] Speaker 1: care facility in the country.
[19:24] Speaker 7: The decline, it could be attributed to a lot of factors.
[19:28] Speaker 3: It could be that, as I said earlier also, that.
[19:30] Speaker 7: Technology was there, the vision was there, but the manpower
[19:34] Speaker 7: aspect of it, it couldn't catch up. Secondly, the decline
[19:37] Speaker 7: could be because of bureaucratic hurdles. The hiring is a,
[19:41] Speaker 7: especially in a government sector, the hiring is a very bureaucratic,
[19:44] Speaker 7: very tapest process. And it takes a lot of time,
[19:48] Speaker 7: it takes a lot of checks, one, five, will move
[19:50] Speaker 7: from here till here till here and takes a lot
[19:52] Speaker 7: of time. So this also hampered the overall long term
[19:56] Speaker 7: vision of the Delhi Cancer Institute.
[19:58] Speaker 3: Then I think.
[19:59] Speaker 7: If you look at the past six, seven years of
[20:01] Speaker 7: the Delhi Cancer Institute, there have been almost seven to
[20:04] Speaker 7: eight directors that have been changed.
[20:06] Speaker 3: It has seen literally the musical chairs of leadership.
[20:10] Speaker 7: And one director comes, they think of something to do
[20:14] Speaker 7: with maybe to better the, improve the condition of the hospital.
[20:18] Speaker 7: They implement some policies, then they're removed after a few months.
[20:21] Speaker 7: So this continuity, this rupture in the policy, it could
[20:25] Speaker 7: be another factor in this state of Delhi Cancer Institute.
[20:30] Speaker 1: Now, this problem extends beyond DSCI as well. Recently, when
[20:34] Speaker 1: a Delhi High Court ordered audit of 26 government hospitals,
[20:39] Speaker 1: it found unused medical equipment across the city's public health system.
[20:45] Speaker 7: So if you look at the cancer data of India,
[20:48] Speaker 7: it is ICMR releases that data. ICMR is the premier
[20:53] Speaker 7: medical research body of India.
[20:54] Speaker 3: It's a government body.
[20:56] Speaker 7: And ICMR has a cancer counting program, you can say.
[21:00] Speaker 7: It is called the National Cancer Registry Program. It started
[21:03] Speaker 7: in around 1980s. And it uses a population based cancer
[21:07] Speaker 7: registry and hospital based cancer registry to count the number
[21:10] Speaker 7: of cases of cancer. So what happens is it maps
[21:14] Speaker 7: the population given in an area and then it checks
[21:18] Speaker 7: the hospitals in that area as to how many cases
[21:21] Speaker 7: of cancers were reported and then it counts the cases.
[21:24] Speaker 7: So a lot of times what happens is a lot
[21:27] Speaker 7: of populated areas are not covered by these population based registries.
[21:33] Speaker 7: So if cancer is made a notifiable disease, which I
[21:37] Speaker 7: think Goa did recently, then it is done through a
[21:40] Speaker 7: legal process like swine flu.
[21:43] Speaker 3: Or malaria or dengue. These are all notifiable diseases.
[21:47] Speaker 7: If any case of dengue comes to your hospital, you
[21:50] Speaker 7: have to notify the health authorities that okay this case
[21:53] Speaker 7: has come and then it helps to create a database
[21:55] Speaker 7: and when a database is created it helps the immunologist
[21:59] Speaker 7: the scientists the experts to analyze that data and then
[22:03] Speaker 7: the government to make plans for the data So if
[22:05] Speaker 7: there is a national data for cancer, which covers all
[22:09] Speaker 7: the regions and all the areas of cancer.
[22:11] Speaker 3: If you look at.
[22:12] Speaker 7: The ICMR data, there is very high rate of cancer
[22:15] Speaker 7: in Northeast. But it is because most of the regions
[22:19] Speaker 7: in Northeast are 100% covered in the National Population Registry.
[22:23] Speaker 7: And if you look at other areas, let's say you
[22:25] Speaker 7: look at UP, you will not see high percentage of cancer.
[22:29] Speaker 7: There will be high incidence of cancer, but those cases
[22:32] Speaker 7: will not be reported or mapped. So I think this
[22:35] Speaker 7: is an issue that the government should look into that
[22:37] Speaker 7: there should be a national database for cancer.
[22:40] Speaker 1: Meanwhile, the Delhi Health Minister has now said the government
[22:44] Speaker 1: has taken cognizance of the gaps, asked for a detailed
[22:48] Speaker 1: report and will fast track recruitment and repair of machines.
[22:54] Speaker 7: Delhi government is promising, basically, Pankaj Singh, Delhi health minister,
[22:58] Speaker 7: he told us that Our priority is to ensure that
[23:02] Speaker 7: no cancer patient is forced to go out of Delhi
[23:04] Speaker 7: and we will create a circuit of hospitals in which
[23:07] Speaker 7: Delhi State Cancer Institute will be a cancer specialist hospital.
[23:13] Speaker 7: And they have started the hiring process. They have started
[23:15] Speaker 7: to run the machines with the hiring because as the
[23:19] Speaker 7: hiring will continue and the people will obviously gradually it
[23:23] Speaker 7: will lead to more footfall. It will lead to more
[23:25] Speaker 7: patients getting treated in the DSCI.
[23:33] Speaker 1: And in the end, we talk about a judgment from
[23:35] Speaker 1: the Allahabad High Court, which has quashed the detention of
[23:39] Speaker 1: 25-year-old Delhi University graduate Akriti Chaudhry under the National Security
[23:45] Speaker 1: Act and delivered an unusually sharp warning to the Uttar
[23:50] Speaker 1: Pradesh administration against bureaucratic overreach. Chaudhry had been detained in
[23:55] Speaker 1: connection with protests by factory workers in Noida earlier this year.
[23:59] Speaker 1: Those protests and the violence that followed led to 15 FIRs,
[24:04] Speaker 1: hundreds being booked and at least 60 people being jailed.
[24:08] Speaker 1: As reported by the Indian Express's Soumya Panwar, the High
[24:11] Speaker 1: Court found that the material against Chaudhary did not justify
[24:15] Speaker 1: invoking the NSA, a law that allows preventive detention without
[24:20] Speaker 1: ordinary criminal trial safeguards. The bench said the police allegations
[24:25] Speaker 1: against her were unsupported by credible material. It noted that
[24:30] Speaker 1: she had no previous criminal records and had been supporting
[24:33] Speaker 1: workers demanding better wages and humane working hours, and there
[24:38] Speaker 1: was no evidence that she had incited violence. The court
[24:42] Speaker 1: went further, saying that the district magistrate appeared to have
[24:46] Speaker 1: wanted to make an example of Chaudhry and deter others
[24:49] Speaker 1: from exercising their freedom of speech. Calling the exercise of
[24:53] Speaker 1: authority casual and cavalier, the court awarded her 5 lakh
[24:58] Speaker 1: in compensation. and directed that the amount be recovered from
[25:02] Speaker 1: the salary of the district magistrate and other officers responsible
[25:06] Speaker 1: for the detention, right down to the SHO. Now, the
[25:10] Speaker 1: broader warning from the court was even more significant. It
[25:13] Speaker 1: said civil servants must remember that their loyalty is to
[25:17] Speaker 1: the constitution, not the political executive, and that they serve
[25:22] Speaker 1: the people. The court also described peaceful protest as a
[25:25] Speaker 1: kind of safety valve in a democracy. arguing that suppressing
[25:30] Speaker 1: dissent can itself create greater unrest. And after reviewing video footage,
[25:35] Speaker 1: the judges said the protesters appeared to be peacefully exercising
[25:38] Speaker 1: their constitutional rights while demanding higher pay and humane working hours.
[25:44] Speaker 1: The court's warning was stark. If such unchecked exercises of
[25:48] Speaker 1: state power continue, Uttar Pradesh risks being reduced to what
[25:52] Speaker 1: it called an Orwellian dystopia.
[25:58] Speaker 2: You were listening to Three Things by The Indian Express.
[26:01] Speaker 1: Today's show was edited and mixed by Suresh Bavar and
[26:04] Speaker 1: produced by Shashank Bhargav and me, Itchha Sharma. If you
[26:07] Speaker 1: like the show, do subscribe to us wherever you get
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