The Hindu : Front Page : Rift in LDF over private practice ban

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Nov 16, 2009
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Front Page

Front Page

Rift in LDF over private practice ban

C. Gouridasan Nair

CPI, RSP to suggest a middle path at LDF meet
RSP to raise transfer of ‘Jalanidhi’

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The State committee of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) meeting here on Monday is likely to see the Communist Party of India (CPI) and Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) taking up cudgels against their Communist Party of India (Marxist) counterparts, both for the Health Department’s decision to ban private practice by medical college doctors and the latter, particularly over the move to transfer ‘Jalanidhi’ water supply scheme to the Local Self-Government Department as part of an agreement with the World Bank.

The decision to ban private practice by doctors has become a fait accompli with the Health Department implementing the decision and the referral system in the government medical colleges becoming operational beginning this week. Both the CPI and RSP are sore about the manner in which the CPI(M) and the Health Minister took the decision without consulting them or the LDF panel.

Impact on poll result

The CPI is particularly peeved because the party’s Alappuzha byelection review had shown that the ban, which resulted in autorickshaw and taxi drivers in Alappuzha town suffering heavy erosion in their daily earnings, had adversely affected the party candidate’s prospects.

The CPI and RSP are also of the view that a total ban on private practice without strengthening the middle level health care infrastructure in the government sector would prove counterproductive and drive patients to private hospitals.

They may suggest a middle path where the medical college doctors would be permitted to treat patients outside their duty hours in a limited way under close departmental scrutiny so that poor people could avail their services.

The RSP leadership has also resolved to take up the agreement between the Local Self-Government Department and the World Bank for a loan of Rs.1,000 crore to strengthen the local self-government institutions.

The RSP’s objection is to the reported decision to transfer the World Bank-aided ‘Jalanidhi’ water supply scheme to the Local Self-Government Department, which is with the CPI(M), without any discussion in the LDF or among the parties concerned. The RSP representatives attending the LDF committee meeting are likely to seek a detailed discussion on the subject.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page