Accusing Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal for ignoring “cancer epidemic” in Malwa region of the State, the State Congress on Monday said that people were dying of the disease due to poor health infrastructure in the region.
Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) president Partap Singh Bajwa, while addressing a party workers meeting, said that Badal had little interest in the welfare of people living in Gidderbaha and other areas “due to narrow political mindset”.
The State Congress chief said that according to a recent Punjab Health Department study, there are 23,874 cancer patients in the State and 33,318 people have lost their lives to the deadly disease in the past five years.
“The death rate due to cancer was 90 per lakh population against national average of 80. The cancer death rate was 51 per lakh per year in Talwandi Sabo of Bathinda as compared to 30 in Chamkaur Sahib, outside Malwa,” said Bajwa.
Bajwa alleged that the RO systems installed in Malwa by a Centre-sponsored NGO “Nandi” have become redundant because its filters were not replaced for the last three years. “There is no speciality hospital for cancer patients in Malwa, except for a private hospital in Bathinda which was set up on land given on subsidy by the State Government, but treatment to patients is not subsidised,”
he added.