30 Jan 2014

The negligence on the part of the Goa Medical College that allowed untreated sewage from its septic tank to overflow into the Bambolim village which contaminated its wells, shows the sheer callousness and apathy with which government institutions function. There had been several complaints over the last year from the villagers, but the government institution paid no heed to their voice, which is all the more shocking, considering this is a state run hospital that should be concerned with issues of public health. It was only after the ruling party MLA Vishnu Wagh threatened to lead a gherao to the college dean that the GMC moved on the double to get its treatment plant rectified, which shows that the government can act, if it wants to. 

The particular incident, together with other innumerable instances of neglect, raises a huge question mark on the administrative health of Goa’s “premier” public hospital which is set to have a super specialty block with investments running into crores of rupees, both from the Centre and state, riding on it. It also raises the larger question of government’s understanding of the primacy of human development based around two sectors—health and education.

While the BJP government has been busy trumpeting the projects it has initiated, Health Minister Laximikant Parsekar has said little about fixing accountability, increasing responsiveness and improving the attitude of medical personnel at GMC or drafting a health policy with measurable parameters. He’s said even less about plugging corruption. The GMC has far too often been accused of gross medical negligence. Added to that is the unending list of citizens’ complaints over the large-scale pilferage of medicines. The institution’s image has taken such a hit that even those among us who are not so well off and can hardly afford the high charges of private  hospitals are increasingly having to turn to them with public faith in the GMC at its lowest. This in spite of the fact that GMC has some of the best medical equipment. The net result has been that hordes of patients from Karwar, Bijapur, Sawantwadi, Kolhapur and other neighbouring districts flock here for treatment. The question is, is the health minister willing to clean up the mess at GMC and restore the confidence of the local people in the institution?

Another Central government-run institution too had been pulled up for pumping sewage from its staff quarters into a well, since it did not have an overflow pit. The locals in Caranzalem had the perennial problem of sewage seeping into their wells in the monsoon. Many such government  institutions feel they are part of an elite that has no accountability towards the public. They generally operate in isolated towers with very few of their projects benefiting the local community. Considering the expertise available to them, the scientific institutions should have advised the government whenever the location chosen—specially on plateaus—was not the ideal one for villages around. One can expect similar problems to crop up with the plans to locate garbage recycling plants at Pilerne, Bainguinim and industrial estates at Verna and Kundaim which have settlements at the base of these plateaus. 

Traditionally, plateaus were not inhabited in Goa. Moreover, the government and its agencies, such as the Goa State Pollution Control Board, are known to come down on factories/hotels in the private sector, but air and water consents do not seem to apply to government institutions flouting norms. The ruling party MLA had to prod these agencies into action by mobilizing people to protest the GMC violation. Most government departments and agencies are reactive, with very few departments being proactive. One only wishes it had been the other way around.

Is the health minister willing to clean up the mess at GMC and restore the confidence of the local people in the institution?