Goemkarponn desk
PANAJI: Social activist Adv Aires Rodrigues has claimed that Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and MLA Babush Monserrate have taken the people of Ribandar for a ride by falsely promising us that at the Old Ribandar Hospital, a 30 bedded facility with a 24×7 Casualty cum Trauma unit equipped with all the required facilities would be set up and expanded in stages to be a fully-fledged Hospital.
He said that the Old Ribandar Hospital premises have been given away to a Tamil Nadu-based company to set up Siddha Clinical Research Unit under the Ayush Ministry.
“Our Old Ribandar Hospital was Asia’s first medical school with a very glorious history, and this priceless heritage structure needs to be preserved by restoring the premises as a full-fledged hospital. Medical facilities at the Old Ribandar Hospital would benefit not only a densely populated Ribandar but also neighbouring residents of Chimbel, Merces, Old Goa and the Island of Divar. The setting up of that cosmetic health centre on October 2nd last year was mere eyewash,” he said.
Aires stated that even in his manifesto at the Assembly elections held this year, Babush Monserrate had promised full-fledged medical facilities at the Ribandar Hospital but, as expected has reneged on what was assured. What do his three Councillors who had blindly vouched for their Maestro’s words have now to say since our Ribandar Hospital has been doled away?
“Our health and well-being are our number one priority, and nothing else is more important. As Mahatma Gandhi famously said, ‘It is health that is real wealth, not pieces of gold and silver,” he said.
