Bhubaneswar: In a major embarrassment to the BJD government in the Odisha Assembly, a ruling party MLA Tuesday said that peons administer injection to patients in several state-run hospitals due to lack of doctors and paramedics in tribal-dominated areas.
This was revealed by BJD legislator from Anandpur, Bhagirathi Sethi while narrating the sorry state of affairs in the health sector in his constituency in Keonjhar district during the Zero Hour. He also criticized Health and Family Welfare Minister N K Das’s lack of concern for the people in his constituency.
Sethi said his pleading with the Health and Family Welfare minister has been ignored. “MLA Badri Patra and I have several times drawn the attention of the minister over the issue but there has been no change. So I feel that talking to minister Naba Das is akin to slapping self,” he said.
Sethi said that there is no dearth of funds for the development of Keonjhar, a mineral-rich district. A lot of revenue is generated from Keonjhar, but people’s miseries continue, he said.
Another senior BJD lawmaker S R Patnaik also publicly expressed concern over the disparity in government data on number of women consuming alcohol in the state.
“Government officials have been providing varied figures on the number of women consuming alcohol in Odisha, which mismatch and contradict at times. It becomes difficult for a member of the House to establish on the floor as to who is lying. Is an MLA liar or the concerned government official?,” Patnaik asked while raising the point during the Zero Hour.
As per National Family Health Survey (NFHS) conducted in 2015-16, the number of women consuming alcohol in India was 1.2 per cent which increased to 1.3 per cent as of now. On the contrary, the number of women consuming alcohol in Odisha now is 4.3 per cent.
While drawing the attention of Speaker B K Arukha, the lawmaker from Khandapada said that government officials say that there is a fall in the number of women consuming alcohol in the state. “Would anybody make me understand, how the total number can be accepted to have diminished?,” he asked.
Patnaik also expressed his displeasure over lack of conservation of water in different rivers. Though the state often make complaint against neighbouring Chhattisgarh government for checking flow of water in river Mahanadi by constructing barrages on their side, we (Odisha government) have not taken any such measures to conserve water in other rivers like Kuakhai, Patnaik said.
He urged the Speaker to direct the state government to build a barrage over the river Kuakhai.
Outside the House, Patnaik said “Government servants have become egoistic. The state government should put curbs on them in order to protect democratic process.”
Reacting to the statements of Sethi and Patnaik, BJD MLA R K Das said it is a fact that there is scarcity of doctors in the state. Steps are being taken to fill up vacant posts of doctors and health workers, he said.
On alleged arrogance of government servants, Das said: “I do not feel so. The officers are responding to the lawmakers.”
PTI