Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Chandy asks VS to call back Health Minister

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Leader of the Opposition Oommen Chandy on Wednesday urged Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan to ask Health Minister P.K. Sreemathy to cut short her trip to the U.S. and return to the State to tackle the challenge of controlling the spread of H1N1 flu.

Participating in a discussion on demands for grants in the Budget, he said it was “outrageous” that the Health Minister should desert her post when the State was in such a crisis. He read out data released by the Indian Council of Medical Research to maintain that Kerala was the State worst affected by the outbreak of the disease in the country.

He said the attitude of the Minister reflected the government's attitude to the problems of the people. Over 3,000 posts in the Health Department remained vacant at the moment. Doctors who had been given advice memos by the Kerala Public Service Commission recently could not join duty since appointment orders were being delayed.

He said there was neither collective responsibility, nor any kind of coordination in the working of the Council of Ministers. Kerala Congress leader K.M. Mani, who also spoke, compared the present ‘predicament' of the State to that of Rip Van Winkle, who, on waking up after a long slumber, found the world all around having changed and progressed leaving him baffled.

“Four years have passed since you came to power, but you have stalled the entire development process in the State,” he said.

Referring to the recent public remark against High Court judges by CPI(M) leader M.V. Jayarajan, Mr. Chandy and Mr. Mani said it did not augur well for democracy if a party leading the government were to allow its members to challenge the court and use contemptuous remarks against judicial officers.

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