AERIAL VIEW
Surprisingly, in the current government, Vishwajit Rane, who missed out on the Chief Minister’s chair, was the biggest winner getting the biggest portfolios of TCP, Forest, Health, Urban Development and Women and Child. He has the highest number of Portfolios after Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant.
However, the TCP portfolio seems to be so lucrative that the entire attention of Mr Rane is on just one portfolio apart from Forest. The causality of this attitude has been the Health department.
Health and Education departments are the two critical departments in any government. We had seen how the government’s lethargic attitude wreaked havoc last May when around 1700 plus people lost their lives due to a shortage of Oxygen. After the crisis, the Health Minister and the chief minister were involved in a blame game.
Editor, Goemkarponn
Ever since the new government was formed in March, the Health Minister Vishwajit Rane seems to be more interested in the Town and Country Planning, which he has been allotted.
Obviously, TCP is one of the most lucrative portfolios in the State government and every minister sworn in in the Cabinet has a desire to become the TCP minister simply because of the money involved in the department.
With the real estate booming and the ODPs ruling the roost in the absence of the Regional Plan, TCP ministers today become billionaires overnight. Goa has already seen how the ministers have fought for the TCP ministry in the past. In 2019 when Babu Kavlekar and 9 other Congress MLAs crossed over to BJP, Kavlekar’s only condition was he should get the TCP ministry.
Surprisingly, in the current government, Vishwajit Rane, who missed out on the Chief Minister’s chair, was the biggest winner getting the biggest portfolios of TCP, Forest, Health, Urban Development and Women and Child. He has the highest number of Portfolios after Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant.
However, the TCP portfolio seems to be so lucrative that the entire attention of Mr Rane is on just one portfolio apart from Forest. The causality of this attitude has been the Health department.
Health and Education departments are the two critical departments in any government. We had seen how the government’s lethargic attitude wreaked havoc last May when around 1700 plus people lost their lives due to a shortage of Oxygen. After the crisis, the Health Minister and the chief minister were involved in a blame game.
We also saw the huge scams in the purchase of equipment and materials for the COVID19 in the State, but neither the CM nor the health minister is
interested in any kind of enquiry.
Agreed, the COVId19 cases have decreased, and the pandemic is at an endemic stage, but again the threat of the fourth wave still looms large, and the government needs to be war-ready against any threat for which there needs to be a full-time health minister and not a part-time minister, who is more interested in revenge politics and real-estate.
Seriously, the Chief Minister, Dr Pramod Sawant, needs to appoint one full-time Minister for Health or keep the portfolio with himself.
There are several issues with the health department, health centres in various constituencies, and the pathetic State. The health centres like Avedem are crumbling, and the buildings themselves have become a massive threat to the lives of the patient; forget the pandemic.
Elsewhere, the government has simply built the infrastructure like in North Goa District Hospital, SDH Ponda, and Chicalim hospital, but these hospitals need doctors and more facilities.
A simple injury, these hospitals send the patients to GMC as it lacks CT scans and testing facilities.
Is this what we call the State of the art Health infrastructure?
For the sake of it, we have a Super Speciality hospital, which could be another scam in the making. We all saw how the false ceiling of this multi-crore building collapsed last year.
Overall, we have the machines but no operators and raw material to operate the factory. Moreover, there is no manager either.
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