Treasury bench was embarrassed during the Question Hour on Tuesday thanks to the State health minister Surendra Singh Negi’s poor home work.
As the House began MlA Madan Kaushik asked the minister about the number of community health centres (CHC), primary health centres (PHC) and mobile vans running in the State on Public Private Partnership (PPP). He also asked Negi to state the figures of the PPP service remaining non-functional. The minister was found fumbling.
Unrelenting, the MlA asked Negi about the budget the State government has allocated for PPP models. The minister evaded reply, citing the case being sub-judice. Kaushik closed in on him, saying that as the Assembly had passed the budget there should be no bar on the Minister coming out with the reply. The minister, however, chose not to answer.
later, replying to a question raised by Harbans Kapur, the minister said that 36 urban primary health centres (PHC) had been running on PPP mode in the urban areas. He further said they had floated tenders on March 18 2015 and technical bid had been cleared on April 20, 2015 while the financial bid cleared on May 20 2015 and letter of Award issued on July 23, 2015. He further said that all PPP contracts would expire on March 31, 2016.
Kaushik said the minister had given contradictory figures, saying that he had cited 25 and 36 while replying to different questions. As the minister sounded argumentative the Opposition said health being a serious matter, the minister should not deviate.
Replying to MlA Surendra Singh Jeena’s question, the minister said that 14 allopathic hospitals had been established in Salt Assembly constituency while 13 doctors had been working in these hospitals. He added that the doctors were yet to be appointed for Sainmanur hospital as it had come up recently. Jeena countered, saying that Sainmanur hospital had come up in 2015. “However, it is still shorn of doctors,” he said.
The Opposition MlAs said that the officers had been misguiding the ministry with the minister having no sway over his department. Enraged by it, the minister fell upon Shaktiman to disarm the Opposition and sought their apology for the incident.
The Opposition leader Ajay Bhatt stressed that the minister was seeking to digress from the questions being asked by the MlAs. The minister finally said the officials were being asked to take note of things, while assuring that he would come more prepared in the coming days of the session.