Chandigarh, Holding the Punjab Health Minister Mr Surjit Kumar Jyani from the Bharatiya Janata Party for the criminal neglect of the health sector as reflected in 18 persons having lost sight following eye operation, the state Congress President Mr Partap Singh Bajwa demanded his immediate resignation and adequate compensation to the sufferers.
“What is shocking is that all these days, the authorities were totally unaware about the camp having been organised in Batala, in Gurdaspur district where more than 60 eye operations were conducted. It is after several days that the tragedy has come to be known and that too when these sufferers were brought to Amritsar eye hospital”, he said.
Expressing his shock over this man-made tragedy, he wanted to know as to how come that the camp was organised without the knowledge of the district authorities. It was obvious that adequate precautionary measures were not taken by the doctors who conducted these operations. Moreover, there was no post-operative care.
He said recently, tragedy had struck in Ludhiana civil hospital where five infants had died at birth due to utter negligence and lack of adequate facilities at the newly inaugurated hospital. He said Mr Jyani was in too much of a hurry to claim credit and in the process, he inaugurated the complex where adequate facilities were still to be provided.
He also referred to still a bigger tragedy at Gandhi Camp, Batala where more than 40 people had died due to disease caused by polluted water sometime back.
He said providing potable water was the responsibility of the Local Bodies department and this department too had been with the BJP. He said the BJP ministers were associated with total inefficiency. It was a different matter that governance was not a priority in the Parkash Singh Badal government.
He referred to the oft repeated claims of Prime Minister Narendra Modi of providing efficient and transparent governance. He said these tragedies had occurred under the ministries held by the ministers from his party.
He said the victims, majority of them women in this case, must be properly compensated and the state government must provide them the latest eye care to restore their eye sight.