New Delhi, Sept 16, 2020: The Indian Medical Association, a national voluntary organization of doctors of modern scientific system of medicine in India, has sounded upset over recent statements of various government sources regarding the coronavirus pandemic.
The association that looks after the interest of doctors and their wellbeing was piqued to read the statement of federal Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, a doctor himself, that failed to recognize the doctors who had died in the line of duty. It was further upset by his junior minister’s statement that the government had no data as health is a state subject.
Accusing the government of “indifference,” “abdication” and “abandonment of heroes,” the association said in such a circumstance, the government “loses the moral authority to administer the Epidemic Act 1897 and the Disaster Management Act.”
So far, 382 doctors have died of coronavirus, the IMA said. In the list it released, the youngest doctor to lose his life was 27 and the oldest 85.
But while acknowledging the contribution of healthcare workers during the pandemic, the health minister made no mention of the medical professionals lost to the disease, the IMA said.
“To feign that this information doesn’t merit the attention of the nation is abominable,” the IMA statement read. “It appears that they are dispensable. No nation has lost as many doctors and health care workers like India,” the statement added.
The IMA pointed to junior minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey’s statement that the government does not have any compensation data as public health and hospitals comes under the states.
“This amounts to abdication of duty and abandonment of the national heroes who have stood up for our people. IMA finds it strange that after having formulated an unfriendly partial insurance scheme for the bereaved families to struggle with the ignominy of the Government disowning them altogether stares at them,” the statement read.
Such a circumstance also exposes the “hypocrisy of calling them corona warriors on one hand and denying them and their families the status and benefits of martyrdom,” the IMA said.
In March, the federal Health Ministry had announced that 2,21 million public healthcare providers, including community health workers, will get 5 million rupees insurance cover under a national scheme.
This was the second time in two days that the government faced criticism over the lack of crucial data.
On September 15, it came under opposition criticism after asserting in a written response that it had no data on the migrant laborers who died during the lockdown and so any question on compensation “does not arise”.
“If you haven’t counted, have the deaths not taken place?” Congress leader Rahul Gandhi tweeted.
Terming it “utter callousness,” Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Isaac tweeted, “Centre doesn’t care about deaths of migrant workers they caused by pushing them in to trains, makeshift carts and on foot to the distant homes.”
Source: ndtv.com
Utter callousness of the Government, that was busy entertaining Trump while the pandemic was spreading.