Shah Rukh Khan fell from the roof of his Farrukhabad home in Uttar Pradesh and broke his leg. That was in September. By the end of October, undergoing treatment at the government-run Lok Nayak Hospital in Central Delhi, the eight-year-old boy’s name was drawing more attention than his wounded leg.

The namesake of one of India’s biggest cine stars and son of a rickshaw puller, Shah Rukh Khan did not even have a bed for himself at the hospital.

After the first round of treatment, Khan was asked to vacate the bed in the orthopaedic ward to make room for the next patient.

Sprawled on the cold corridor of the main hospital building, the little boy cried. “He is in a lot of pain even though the doctors plastered his leg after stitching the wounds,” said his father Abrahim, 39, who earns Rs 35-40 a day pulling a rickshaw.

“The doctors will open the bandage and also cut his stitches two days later. We can still fight the cold. I only hope my son does not catch fever,” he told HT on October 23.

Located close to Delhi Gate and both Old and New Delhi railway stations, almost 6,000 patients visit the hospital every day. This does not include the 1,200 patients admitted in the wards.

The hospital, however, is designed to treat only 1,000 OPD patients and 320 admitted patients on a daily basis.

“Neither the infrastructure nor the bed strength was planned to cater to the existing workload,” said Dr Amit Banerjee, medical superintendent, Lok Nayak Hospital.

“We receive patients not only from the entire old Delhi area but also from neighbouring states.” With a doctor-patient ratio of 1: 40 — one doctor for every 40 patients — bed shortages and an overcrowded waiting area are an everyday reality at the hospital.

That Lok Nayak Hospital also shares its sole waiting room with G. B. Pant hospital — which in turn has a daily patient footfall off over 3,000 — makes matters worse.

“We are examining the option of creating new waiting areas to solve the problem of overcrowding,” Dr Banerjee said.

The Delhi Police, the national capital’s protectors, tops the list of government departments whose officials were booked for corruption in 2008.

The anti-corruption bureau, which prepared the list, says at least 20 Delhi Police personnel—from constables to inspectors—were arrested in corruption cases in the past year. Delhi Police Commissioner Y S Dadwal admits corruption is a problem in his force.

“There must have been a turnover of at least 50-70 inspectors since I’ve taken over as commissioner. We are going to take very strict action as far as corruption is concerned and I can assure you that a good part of my time is spent on reading vigilance cases,” said Dadwal.

This is the first time that the anti-corruption bureau is resorting to sting operations, an effort that has helped net a number of corrupt officials.

As many as 81 government officials were arrested for corruption in the capital last year: 20 from Delhi Police, 16 from the Municipal Corporation of Delhi and 10 from the New Delhi Municipal Council.

Seven officials were from the Social Welfare Department, three from the Railway Protection Force and one from the Revenue Department. Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit believes corrupt officers take advantage of people who don’t know their rights.

“Most of the time it is because of absence of knowledge of knowing what their rights are that corruption takes place. All this needs very careful study and I think the entire government is very seriously thinking how we can check that,” she said.