Team Herald
PANJIM: Aam Aadmi Party on Monday castigated the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government led by Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant for risking the lives of Goans by taking them all the way to Udupi for eye surgery even though total rest is recommended after the surgery.
“The so called eye camps under “Vision for All” is actually a farce and is nothing but an eyewash to mislead the people that the government is doing something when in reality it is risking the lives and vision of the people,” AAP Goa leader Dr Vibhas Prabhudesai alleged.
He said, “Instead of organising camps the government would do well to create good eye care facilities for the people of Goa so that they do not have to travel all the way to Udupi for the recommended surgery.”
“The government should create facilities to perform these operations at Goa Medical College, district hospitals and even the Ponda hospital instead of taking the patients all the way to Udupi,” he said while pointing out that ‘post care prohibits any travel as only rest is advised.’
He alleged that the government is preparing to privatise healthcare facilities set up with the tax payers’ money and charged that ‘the Cottage Hospital at Chicalim as well as part of the South Goa District Hospital is going to be privatised shortly.’
“There are vested interests in power in Goa who want to earn profits by privatising the healthcare facilities and have no compunction of playing with the lives of the sick in their attempt to make profits,” he alleged.
Vibhas demanded to know whether taking Goan patients outside the State for treatment and privatising healthcare infrastructure is the aim of “Swayampurna Goa” that the Chief Minister keeps referring to.
Meanwhile, Aam Aadmi Party said it is the only choice left for people as the Congress and BJP have proven themselves to be the two sides of the same coin with Congress legislators all across the country joining the saffron party.
AAP Goa convenor Rahul Mhambre said, “In Goa due to ‘political chicanery’ even though the Congress was the single largest party after the 2017 elections results were declared, the BJP was asked to form the government. Soon thereafter two Congress MLAs Dayanand Sopte and Subhash Shirodkar resigned and joined the BJP and later on July 10, 2019, 10 other Congress MLAs en masse defected to the BJP thereby reducing the Congress strength to only five MLAs in the House of 40.”
