New Delhi, August 21
On a day when swine flu toll in the country touched 47, Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad raised a storm by blaming the state governments for “sleeping through the H1N1 epidemic while the Centre did all the work.” However, he was quick to ‘correct’ himself and said he did not mean to target all the states and was only referring to the non-performing ones.
“I am not bloody interested in figures. I want to know how many beds you have. Don’t expect us to work beyond a certain limit. We have been burdened since the past three months while you (read the states) are having a good time,” Azad said to the gathering of state health ministers, who are in the Capital to attend the meeting on National Rural Health Mission and swine flu preparedness.
Caustic as the remarks were they generated the expected responses with Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yedyurappa slamming Azad for the insinuation. Back in Delhi, Gujarat health minister GN Vyas, present at the meeting, registered a very strong protest to Azad’s statements, reminding him of his federal duties.
“We are not here to listen to these words. You are a federal minister and we look forward to you,” Vyas said, immediately after an angry Azad said that state health ministers were never available for communication and they were not passing on the advisories on H1N1, which the Centre had sent.
Vyas, however, spoke for the entire gathering when he said Azad could not use unconstitutional words like “bloody.”
“This is a collective responsibility and we should deal with it together,” said the Gujarat minister, finding support from state representatives, including the health ministers of West Bengal, Karnataka and Bihar.
Later, during the day, a humbled Azad told The Tribune that he was satisfied with the current level of states’ preparedness on swine flu. But he claimed that the states had become serious only after the visits of central teams. “I am happy with the current awareness on the epidemic. But I must say that this has happened only after we sent our teams to look at the facilities there. Ever since the teams have returned, I see some seriousness among states. Several shortcomings have been removed,” Azad said.
The Health Ministry has asked all rich and big states to procure at least 10 extra ventilators (which would cost around Rs one crore) to handle H1N1 patients. The government would financially support smaller and northeastern states for the purpose. State representatives, however, said the actual problem was not the procurement of ventilators but their operation as there was an acute shortage of trained manpower.
