M A I N   N E W S

Maya puts gas minister on backburner
2 Lucknow hospitals refuse to let Jitin launch his
‘sanjha chulha’ scheme
Shahira Naim
Tribune News Service

Lucknow, August 27
Throwing a spanner in the petroleum ministry’s scheduled programme, two government hospitals in Lucknow have refused to extend cooperation for a function on their premises where Union Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Jitin Prasada was to provide LPG gas facility for the common kitchen in the hospital.

On August 29, Prasada was to give away LPG gas connections in the common kitchens so that patients’ attendants could cook their food without inconvenience.

However, the officials in charge of both the Balrampur district hospital and Veerangana Jhalkari Bai Mahila Hospital have sought postponement of the programme.

In a letter to the petroleum ministry asking for the postponement of the function, the Balrampur hospital Director even suggested: “The function is not fit to be inaugurated by a minister of the Government of India as the facility is being provided to the attendants at a nominal rent.”

On the other hand, the medical superintendent of Mahila Hospital, Dr Minu Sagar, in her letter has admitted that she would have to seek permission from the state government for the function and that was not possible to get at such a short notice.

On the initiative of Prasada, the petroleum ministry had written to the state government hospitals in the city regarding this scheme of ‘sanjha chulha’ at the shelter homes attached to the hospitals where attendants live and cook.

While these two hospitals had welcomed the initiative and agreed to provide space for the LPG connections, the other hospitals declared that for the present they were not in a position to take advantage of the scheme and would do so at a later stage.

However, even before the LPG connections could be formally handed over to the hospitals at a function scheduled for August 29, the state government decided to change its mind.