In the wake of the reported observation against the Health and Family Welfare Department by the Justice PS Naidu Commission in its probe report on the 2011 liquor-medicine tragedy in Cuttack and Khurda districts, State BJP president KV Singh Deo on Friday demanded resignation of the then Health Minister and present Finance Minister Prasanna Acharya from the Cabinet.
Since the Naidu Commission has reportedly indicted the Health and Family Welfare Department for its failure and held it responsible for the liquor-medicine tragedy, Acharya should resign on “high moral ground”, said Singh Deo at a Press conference here.
Quoting media reports, Singh Deo said that while the judicial commission has given a clean chit to the then Excise Minister AU Singh Deo, it has indirectly pointed finger at the then Health Minister for his failure and clandestine role in the tragic incident.
Acharya has no moral right to remain in the Ministry in view of the indictment of the commission and should immediately tender his resignation, he said.
Besides, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik needs to clarify on the issue, Singh Deo insisted.
He also demanded to know why the Government did not present the commission’s report in the last Budget session of the State Assembly along with an action-taken report.
Singh Deo said that according to the report, the Excise Department ignoring the recommendation of the Health Department had given a spirit licence to the pharamaceutical company in question that produced spurious medicine.
However, it was the duty and responsibility of the Health Department to supervise and monitor the usage of the spirit and the end product quality. The failure on the part of the Health Department in the product monitoring resulted in the liquor-medicine tragedy, the report has pointed out.
Singh Deo also flayed Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for keeping the people in the dark on the reports of the different commissions of inquiry instituted to go into various incidents during the last 13 years.
He demanded that the Chief Minister make public the statuses and reports of the commissions of inquiry and the actions taken on the reports.
Stating that the Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had ordered judicial investigations on the sensitive and grave issue of killing of 13 tribals in Kalinga Nagar and chopping off the palms of their bodies and the killing of a student in Balangir by the police, Singh Deo demanded that the reports be made public immediately.