Different wings of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress-led UDF were conducted mass protests on Saturday, demanding the resignation of the state Health Minister Veena George in connection with the death of a woman when part of the Kottayam Medical College building collapsed two days ago. Youth Congress activists, Kerala Students Union (KSU), Mahila Congress, Youth League, and the BJP activists organised protests in the state capital and other major cities such as Palakkad, Kochi, Kollam, Kannur, and Mananthavady during the day.
Protesters reached the District Collector's office or the District Medical Officer (DMO) office at several places and clashed with the police and water cannons. They raised slogans for George's resignation. In the state capital city, Youth Congress activists converged on George's official residence, and police broke up the protestors with water cannons.
The same was seen across numerous cities in the state, including Wayanad, where Youth Congress activists attempted to lay a wreath at the office of the DMO there.
In Pathanamthitta, BJP workers went in a protest march to the residence of the family of the health minister and attempted to topple the police barricades erected to prevent them. Saffron party activists also organised a protest march to the Kozhikode medical college and hurled slogans against the minister. Police had to resort to ejecting the protestors forcibly in many areas after water cannon rounds failed to disperse them.
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Senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala in Palakkad, releasing a protest by the Mahila Congress against George, stated that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan should have called for the resignation of Health Minister when she left the country in light of her purported "inefficiency", "indifference", and "grave mistakes".
Mahila Congress workers wrapped their mouths with a black cloth as a symbol of protest and held placards and banners calling for George's resignation.
Chennithala told reporters that while he was not against the CM going abroad for treatment, he expected Vijayan to request her to resign. "I expected the government to have kept in mind that the poor cannot go to the US or the UK for treatment," he continued.
He also attacked CPI(M) state secretary MV Govindan for his statement yesterday that the agitations were being conducted on the instructions of Sunil Kanugolu, Congress party's election strategist.
Chennithala referred to the fact that even prior to the protests, a government physician of the Thiruvananthapuram government medical college made unequivocal charges against the state health department. He also accused the Left government of ruining the state's health sector in its nine years of rule and questioned, "So, are the protests unnecessary?" The same charges were levelled by the Leader of Opposition in the assembly, VD Satheesan, who echoed the call for George's resignation.
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