A Neurosurgeon turned politician, BJP MLA from tribal constituency Bharmour in Chamba district, Dr Janak Raj said majority commitments made in the budget speeches by the present government over the last three years had turned out to be mere formality, as they had not been fulfilled.
Participating in the cut motion on health and family welfare moved by Leader of Opposition, Jai Ram Thakur in the State Assembly, Dr Janak started by taking oath that he would speak on facts and would not bring politics into his statement. He listed out many announcements made in the budget 2024-25 and 2025-26, on which, he said the government had done nothing. He said where was the state level Scrub Typhus Research unit committed in the 2024-25 budget by the state government, where was the earmarked system for lactation management for mothers in Kamla Nehru Hospital and Tanda Medical College hospital, where were 25-26 blood storage units, Advanced Life Saving Ambulances, Pet Scan facility and many other facilities promised in the earlier three budgets by the present government. "The government had announced to establish an integrated public health laboratory for all tests, but it was never done," he said.
He said the government had announced in a previous budget that the Himcare scheme would be strengthened, and now intends to stop it on small pretexts.
Dr Janak Raj said the Himcare scheme was launched by the previous Bharatiya Janata Party government in larger public interest and 11 lakh people have benefitted from this scheme so far. "Any scheme which achieves 80 per cent of the target is considered successful. And in some cases if the poor people have been accommodated out of the way in the scheme, it should not be made a big issue. Then why is the government hell-bent on closing this scheme?" he questioned and explained the case pointed out by the Chief Minister, wherein he had mentioned in the House on Friday that males got operated for uterus. He referred to a case, wherein a poor patient, who could not be accommodated in the Himcare package otherwise, was considered on compassionate grounds for cancer treatment.
He said if there were some irregularities in Himcare scheme, let any third party or a sitting Judge of High Court probe it, instead of the Vigilance Bureau to avoid any bias.
Dr Janak Raj said the government should better work on strengthening the basic facilities for the common masses in health institutions and hospitals than introducing the advanced facilities just everywhere.
"The government is buying robotic surgery machines in different hospitals. Robotic surgery is a costly technique. Do all the patients come to the hospital for surgeries? There are numerous other health problems, which we are ignoring. There is mismatch of the priority. We may have robotic surgery facility in one premier institution and the train the doctors and staff there," Dr Janak Raj said.
He said there were many gaps in the health facilities in the field and the people suffer in routine. He said the Palampur civil hospital had a gynaecologist, surgeon and many other specialists, but no anaesthetist. "So how would the other specialists carry out operations? But none is bothered," he said, asking the government to appoint the specialist doctors and the health staff in a way that people get the facility and they don't have to run here and there for routine checkups and operations. He said at many places, doctors are there but the posts of technical staff are vacant. So how would the doctors perform? He talked about the dearth of routine testing facilities in remote Pangi valley in his constituency.
Neurosurgeon politician Dr Janak Raj referred that many politicians suffer from 'Hubris' syndrome, which was an acquired personality disorder in power. "Himachal belongs to everyone and we all have a contribution,” he said.
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