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| Gujarat minister confronts Azad | | |
Abid Shah
New Delhi, August 21: Wittingly or unwittingly, the Union Minister for Health, Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad, kicked off a row here on Friday. This happened after he admonished State Health Ministers at a conference for dragging their feet from an all-out fight against swine flu.
Gujarat Home Minister, Mr J.N. Vyas, took umbrage to the Union Health Minister’s drubbing. Mr Vyas then accused the Union minister of using an expletive like “bloody”, among other things. However, this was not visible in TV grabs of Health Ministers’ conference shown later.
Ever since the outbreak of swine flu, this is the second glitch that has dogged Mr Azad. Earlier, the Union Minister’s had made a remark regarding the likelihood of the infection being spread by a Pune schoolgirl who had died because of swine flu.
The girl’s family was outraged by Mr Azad’s remark and had threatened legal action against him. This had forced Mr Azad on the backfoot and he chose to apologise to the victim’s family.
Yet, on Friday, while addressing Health Ministers gathered in New Delhi from States affected by swine flu, Mr Azad chided the delegates for “confining Central Government’s advisory to files instead of taking them to public” .
This enraged the Gujarat incumbent who later said that he along with a few others complained to the Union Minister about his “choice of words”. Mr Vyas said that on being pointed out “ungentlemanly” way of addressing, Mr Azad showed ‘Sheikh Dili’ or magnanimity by saying “he never meant all the States”.
And thus the row came to an end but not without heightening tempers and causing tense moments.
Meanwhile, the Health Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Mr Sham Sharma, told Early Times over phone from the conference venue that he has sought separate grants for upgradation of patholgical laboratories of Srinagar Medical College as well as Jammu in the wake of swine flu cases tested positive in parts of the State.
Mr Sharma said that he expects Mr Azad's nod to his demand of Rs 35 lakh for laboratory upgradation in Srinagar and Rs 90 lakh for Jammu. The grant sought for the later is higher because the city lacks infrastructure for testing and detecting diseases like swine flu.
Besides swine flu, the Helath Ministers conference in Delhi is also reviewing programmes that are underway in National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) scheme.
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