Question Hour
By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 29 Feb: Health Minister Dr Dhan Singh Rawat today claimed that the government is in talks with top private hospitals in Uttarakhand to convince them to treat patients under the Ayushman Bharat and Atal Ayushman schemes. In this connection, the government is mulling making it mandatory for all hospitals to treat patients under these schemes. He asserted that the government would soon issue orders in this regard. He made it clear that the hospitals that refuse the treatment of patients under these schemes will have no right to operate in the state. He added that top private hospitals may make a provision for a quota of patients to be treated under this scheme.
Rawat was responding to a starred question asked by Congress member Bhuvan Kapri and the supplementary questions asked by various members in this regard. In response to another supplementary question, Dr Rawat asserted that the government is making sincere efforts to fill all the vacancies including those of specialist doctors in the government hospitals and shared that over 425 PG medical students who would be completing their PG courses this year would be posted in the hospitals including those located in the hills. He also asserted that the health department is continuously monitoring the hospitals and action is being taken against doctors found absent from duty.
In response to a question, Dr Rawat said that the government is mulling free treatment of cancer for all the card holders as a matter of principle.
In response to a starred question by Mamta Rakesh of Congress, Health Minister Rawat disclosed that the Golden Card scheme launched for government employees will soon include employees of all 26 Public Sector undertakings, state universities, various institutes and institutions, and authorities like MDDA, etc. In response to a starred question by Vikram Singh Bisht, Dhan Singh Rawat conceded that two pregnant women had died on the way to a referred hospital after they were refused treatment at the Community Health Centre in Chaund in Pratap Nagar (District Tehri). He also conceded that on the day that incident happened, three doctors were on leave. An inquiry has been set up on how all the doctors could be permitted leave at the same time. The inquiry report has been received and action will be taken soon against the guilty, he claimed.
In response to a short notice question by Pritam Singh, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prem Chand Aggarwal on behalf of CM Pushkar Singh Dhami, who also holds the social welfare portfolio, informed the House that the government is making sincere efforts to curb and tackle the problem of beggars. Aggarwal conceded that while it can’t be stated that the problem of beggary on the streets of various cities including Dehradun had been eradicated, added that all efforts are being made to do so in view of the fact that a law and had been implemented in the state in the year 2017 which had banned beggary in the state.
In response to a starred question asked by Anupama Rawat, which had been postponed in the last session, Cooperatives Minister Dr Dhan Singh Rawat claimed that, ever since the BJP assumed power in the state, many reforms had been carried out to ensure greater transparency in the functioning of the cooperative sector, cooperative societies and cooperative banks. He claimed that, earlier, large scale corruption, irregularities and dynastism was prevalent in the cooperative sector but after the Modi Government at the Centre created a central ministry of cooperation, many major steps to reform the sector have been taken. Action is now being taken even to the extent of dissolving the boards of the society concerned where irregularities are detected or irregular appointments made. He, however, added that the boards of various cooperative societies are independent and autonomous and, hence, they have the authority to make appointments, not the government.
