Leader of the Opposition Oommen Chandy who is in the district as part of the Kerala Mochana Yatra has called for immediate intervention of Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan to resolve the issues raised by striking medical postgraduate students since the poor suffer the most on account of the agitation.
He was speaking to mediapersons here on Friday morning before beginning the Yatra that will take him to Alappuzha district.
Mr. Chandy who made it clear that he was in no way supporting the strike, however, said in the present case even Health Minister P.K. Sreemathy had agreed that the issues raised by the students were genuine. “As per the statement made by the Health Minister, the only reason for the delay in resolving the issues appears to be that the Finance Minister was unavailable to sort out the financial implications,” he said.
Surgeries at medical college hospitals had come to a standstill and thousands of poor people who were dependent on these hospitals for their medical needs were being turned away. The issues could be sorted out if the Chief Minister, the Finance Minister and the Health Minister sat together, he said.
Mr. Chandy said the coming Assembly session would only have to pass a Vote-on-Accounts and as such the Finance Minister was not burdened with the preparation for a full budget. “The delay in resolving the crisis on the pretext that the Finance Minister was not available is an affront to the people who had voted them to power,” Mr. Chandy said.
He called for a comprehensive inquiry into the functioning of the medical colleges in the past five years and said both medical education and public health dispensation had suffered badly during the period on account of mismanagement. To a question, he said the introduction of the referral system at the medical college hospitals had been a failure. “The UDF is of opinion that any major changes should be introduced only after detailed discussions with all stakeholders,” he said.
He said he was of the opinion that private practice by medical college teachers should be allowed as it benefited the common man more than the doctors.
On the financial management of the State, he said the Plan expenditure was less than 80 per cent and the balance would lapse. The State government had also failed to make use of the funds from Centrally sponsored schemes. The realisation in externally aided projects till January 1 was around 25 per cent. “Let them first learn to expend the Plan outlay, then we can talk about expanding the funds for free plan outlay,” Mr. Chandy said.
He expressed hope that the next round of discussions between the State government and the Tecom authorities would be successful in resolving the contentious issues connected with the SmartCity project. “However, we would ask the Chief Minister what deterred him from realising the project during the past four-and-a-half years,” Mr. Chandy added.
He said the UDF believed that SmartCity was important for the State as it would help to overcome the disadvantages it had suffered in attracting IT industries and business as the promoters were sponsored by the government of Dubai.
Jose K. Mani, MP; District Congress Committee president K.C. Joseph, MLA; Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, MLA; Congress leaders M.M. Hassan and Kurian Joy, were present at the press conference.
