Health and Family Welfare Minister Veena George has allayed concerns about the Kerala Public Health Bill, 2021. She was at the Kozhikode collectorate on Monday to chair a meeting of the select committee of the State Legislature on the Bill.
Ms. George told the media that people from various sections of society could come up with suggestions on provisions in it. On apprehensions raised by practitioners of homeopathy and Indian systems of medicine, such as Ayurveda, that modern medicine practitioners would have an upper hand once it was implemented, she claimed that baseless information was being circulated by some vested interests.
The Bill was conceived to have a common law applicable across the State to counter the outbreak of infectious diseases. The committee will hold three more sittings to collect suggestions from various stakeholders, she said. The Madras Public Health Act, 1939, is in force in the Malabar region and the Travancore-Cochin Public Health Act in the rest of the State. The new Bill has provisions from both these Acts.
N. Jayaraj, A.C. Moideen, E.K. Vijayan, and A.P. Anil Kumar, MLAs, who are members of the select committee, were present, among others.
Ms. George also opened a training camp by the National Sample Service Organisation for its staff for its 79th round of survey to be held from July. This is to collect data for compilation of a number of sustainable development goal indicators. The indicators include the percentage of population aware of AYUSH systems and those who are hospitalised for taking such treatments during the last 365 days. Offering the State government’s support for the survey, she said it would help policy formation at the State and Central levels.
