Chandigarh, June 22 -- At the sole canteen of Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research's (PGIMER) new OPD building, patients and their attendants are routinely overcharged.

For most patients visiting the canteen, especially those from outside the city, it is their first meal of the day as they are often asked to come on empty stomach for blood tests. For others, they are often too tired or sick to object to the fleecing. And it is this vulnerability that the canteen staff seem to be exploiting.

Case in point: A patient was made to pay Rs.220 for two thalis that he had ordered. On inspecting the receipt, he found that he was charged Rs.180 for the two meals and Rs.40 for two cold drinks. This even as he had not placed an...