The Indian Medical Association (IMA) on Thursday said that the Railway Budget presented by Minister for Railways Suresh Prabhu has no provision to travel in a healthy atmosphere. According to senior officials in IMA, while there was no special provision for improving food hygiene, the Budget also didn’t take into account the “basic need” of a first aid kit.
National president Dr A Marthanda Pillai said, “There is no special provision in the Budget to prevent food-borne diseases by providing hygienic food. There is also no extra provision in the Budget to prevent waterborne diseases by supplying safe water. All railway stations should be equipped with filtered/RO water system so that public has an access only to safe water.”
Further secretary general Dr KK Aggarwal said that the IMA expected that the Budget would cater for a standard first aid box in every compartment of the trains. “There should also be a provision of defibrillator in every train so that any victim of sudden cardiac arrest should be taken care of,” he said.
Other concerns raised by IMA were that there should be a provision for ambulance at every railway station. They also pointed out that the number of causes of resistant urinary tract infection has been rising because of sharing of toilet seats in the train. “All toilets in the train should be bio-toilets and there should be separate provision for tissue napkins, soap, clean water, towel and sanitisers,” Aggarwal added.
IMA officials elaborated that in an outbreak, people with cough and cold should not be allowed to travel and special provisions should be made for patients to get concessional tickets. “As of now concessions are available for cancer, thalassaemia, kidney, haemophilia, TB, AIDs, Ostomy, aplastic Anaemia and Sickle cell disease patients.
This list should be extended to include all patients with chronic disabling diseases, post transplant patients, liver patients and oxygen dependent patient. Similarly, in the disability list of beneficiaries, the deaf and dumb which are in a clubbed category should be separated,” said the officials.