Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Sunday demanded time-bound probe into ‘money-for-absence’ allegations by a former registrar, besides setting up a joint action committee of Punjab Vidhan Sabha to look into the allegations.
“The written allegations of government doctors absenting themselves from duty by paying hefty amount leveled by a social activist and former Punjab Government official Dr Pyare Lal Garg are of serious nature, which have earned disgrace for the government,” said AAP’s senior leader and the Leader of the Opposition in Vidhan Sabha Harpal Singh Cheema.
He demanded to set up a special committee of Punjab Vidhan Sabha comprising MLAs and representatives of all parties and investigating agencies experts to investigate the allegations within a timeframe to unearth the role of the “health mafia”.Expressing grave concern over the deteriorating public health facilities in the state, Cheema alleged that subsequent governments were solely responsible for their anti-people policies and for allocating shoe-string annual budget to augmenting health services.“There is an urgent need for free medical treatment on the lines of the Arvind Kejriwal Government in Delhi for the people of the state, who are wrestling with high rise inflation and economic slowdown,” said Cheema.He said that Dr Payre Lal Garg, in an article, had leveled serious allegations that a large number of doctors in government dispensaries in rural areas, especially those under the Panchayat Department, were allowed to absent themselves from duty by paying hefty amounts, which had badly hit the services in the rural dispensaries where doctors were not seen around for days.“The allegations leveled by Dr Garg, a former registrar of Baba Farid University, who had been handling various top responsibilities in the state health sector from time-to-time, needed to be investigated seriously and within a timeframe,” he stressed. AAP leader also stressed the need for enhancing annual budget allocation for health and medical education for the financial year 2020-21, on the lines of the Arvind Kejriwal's government in Delhi.
Cheema said that only 3.48 percent of the total budget for health and medical education in the state was earmarked during the financial year 2019-2020, which did not even make for one percent of the state's GDP, as a result of which the health services were badlyhit.