Margao: Leader of Opposition Digambar Kamat said the preparedness of the government in handling and managing the corona pandemic and public health care was exposed after the Director of Health Services Jose D’Sa tested positive for corona.
“The time has passed of giving warnings and ultimatums to the government. If the government fails to act pro-actively, I will have no option but to launch a state-wide agitation,” warned Digambar Kamat.
“I can now only pray to God for the well-being of all”, said Kamat while reacting to the reports of D’Sa testing positive and preferring to get himself admitted in Manipal Hospital instead of Goa Medical College.
“I had alerted the government as early as March 2020 to form a task force comprising of experts from civil society and Army to handle and manage the Covid pandemic. Unfortunately, the government did not listen and today the Minister for Defence (State) and North Goa MP Shripad Naik is compelled to get admitted in a private hospital,” he said.
“I had also demanded that the government should go for community testing rather than community survey. The government did not listen and rather tried to ridicule our suggestion. Incidentally, the AIIMS team of experts which is currently in Goa has publicly emphasised on having community testing to control the spread of corona,” said Kamat.
Kamat said, “despite my repeated demand to make South Goa District Hospital fully operational, the government is still not taking any steps to make the hospital fully functional. The people want to know the reasons why two floors of the hospital are vacant, when the government is actually struggling for the space to accommodate Covid patients”.
