People's Democracy

AP: Left Parties Demand

Health Emergency be Declared

A ROUND table meeting conducted by the Left parties recently in Hyderabad expressed serious concern about the total disarray of public health in the state. Scores of people are succumbing to various diseases that have become rampant because of lack of access to proper medical treatment. The round table conference demanded that the government must immediately declare health emergency in the state and undertake measures to remedy the situation.

Among those who addressed the meeting held at Sundarayya Vignana Kendram on October 15 included CPI(M) state secretary B V Raghavulu, CPI(M) secretariat member Y Venkateshwara Rao, CPI  secretariat member K Ramakrishna, MCPI state secretary M Venkata Reddy, RSP state secretary Janaki Ramulu, Forward Bloc chairman B Surender Reddy, Sundarayya Vignana Kendram secretary Y Siddaiah. The meeting was presided over by SUCI(C) state leader Murahari.

The meeting resolved to visit government hospitals across various towns and cities of the state in order to observe the basic amenities available and the way treatment is being meted out to the patients in those hospitals. It also decided to organise health camps, both as individual political parties and also jointly, after identifying the areas where people are suffering from diseases and ill health in a serious way. The leaders would also write a letter to the chief minister describing the plight of the public health system and demanding immediate measures to provide relief to the people.

Speaking on the occasion, Raghavulu lambasted the state government for its utter irresponsibility in dealing with the situation. The tribals of the remote areas of the state are losing their lives because of diseases like cerebral malaria. Yet the state government could not even distribute mosquito curtains that were coated with the mosquito repellent chemicals in these areas, he lamented. The corporate hospitals are collecting thousands of rupees from the poor patients in the name of the infusing platelets to the those afflicted by dengue fever. The students of the social welfare hostels are suffering from various contagious skin diseases, he added. It is to be noted that disease like malaria, dengue, chiken gunya and others are not covered by the state government’s Arogyasri health scheme. Raghavulu said this scheme is in fact diverting huge sums of money from the state exchequer to private corporate hospitals and demanded its modification in an alternative way so that the suffering public get some relief. He underlined that it is the responsibility of the Left parties to bring about public health issues into the domain of political agenda.

CPI leader Rama Krishna lamented that people’s issues have taken a backseat due to the ongoing political turmoil in the state. He said the situation makes one wonder whether there is a government in existence in the state or not and charged the government of escaping from its responsibility to provide medical care to all the need.

(INN)