the goan I network
MARGAO
With the campaign for the April 23 Lok Sabha election for the South Goa seat hotting up, the Congress and the BJP are engaged in a game of one-upmanship vis a vis the health sector.
While the Congress has raked up the long-pending South Goa district hospital issue hitting out at the BJP for denying health services for the common man, BJP candidate Narendra Sawaikar in his campaign has asserted that the BJP is committed to delivering quality health services.
In fact, Sawaikar referred to health services such as Ayushman Bharat, besides DDSSY health card, saying it is the lifeline for every Goan. And, he made it a point to refer to the Ayush district hospital at Monte Hill, Margao, promising that the proposed hospital will be a big health security for the people.
The Congress, on the other hand, is going hammer and tongs against the BJP for neglecting the district hospital for the last seven years and also the health issues of the people of South Goa.
“This government which has been ruling the state since 2012 did not see any urgency to complete the district hospital. Is this government apathy just because the hospital work had started during my stint as the Chief Minister,” Congress Margao MLA and former Chief Minister said at Francisco Sardinha’s election meeting.
He added: “It appears even the hospital is waiting for the return of the Congress party to power to get the hospital commissioned.”
Congress candidate Francisco Sardinha demanded to know whether the third Mandovi bridge was more important than the completion of the South district hospital when ailing Hospicio has reached a state of saturation.
In the midst of the election campaign, three-time Congress MLA Reginaldo Lourenco also joined the chorus saying that the completion of the long-awaited South Goa District Hospital remained a pipe dream.
Reginaldo dashed off a letter to Chief Minister Pramod Sawant saying though the structure of the building was completed when Congress was in power, the project is still not complete during the last seven years though the state was ruled by three BJP chief ministers.
“The project has missed many deadlines during the tenure of successive BJP governments because it lacks serious planning and that is the reason so much time has been wasted in completing it. Goemkars feel that if the BJP led State government had a will it would have completed the hospital long time back. I say this because they have completed the third Mandovi bridge in five years whose foundation stone was laid in 2014 by PM Narendra Modi. It is seen that priorities are not in the right direction when it comes to the completion of the most important health infrastructure work of South Goa,” he said, adding that the people would not
tolerate the government for reneging on its promise of completing the prestigious health project.
