Vijayapura: BJP MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal has given bizarre ‘advise’ to the District Surgeon of the District Government Hospital on controlling the increasing population of the country.
He has asked the District Surgeon to give priority to pregnant women in treatment who have one or two children already and not to those who have more than three children. This bizarre advice was given during the quarterly Karnataka Development Programme KDP meeting on Monday July 25 during the discussion on the health sector of the District.
The matter came up when Congress MLA Shivanand Patil raised the issue of shortage of gynaecologists in the Taluk Government Hospital which is putting a huge burden on the District Government Hospital.
Patil wanted the Government to appoint more gynaecologists in Taluk Government Hospital to avoid the visit of rural pregnant women to the District Hospital for delivery.
To this, the Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer Rahul Shinde said that despite the government making all efforts, the gynaecologists are not ready to serve in various taluks and they want service only in District Headquarters.
At this time, Yatnal intervened in the discussion by saying that he had noticed a long queue of pregnant women in the District Government Hospital for treatment.
“The District Hospital must see that the treatment is given to those women who have one or two children and not to those who have more than three children. India is already facing a major problem due population explosion. The country will be doomed if we don’t control the population. By prioritising women, we can control the birthrate,” he said.
Echoing the similar sentiments, District In-Charge Minister, Umesh Katti who was chairing the meeting also suggested the same to the surgeon. The surgeon, however, tried to convince the Minister and the MLA that they take the patient only on the basis of criticality and not on the basis of the number of children the women already have.
Earlier, during the discussion on the Agriculture Department, the Minister asked the Agriculture Department Joint Director Rajshekhar William to import African variety Toor seeds and cultivate them on trial bases.
William said that they have found that the African variety Toor is a long duration crop which the farmers may not prefer here.
The Minister said that as per his knowledge the variety has higher yield though it is long duration.
“I am asking you to at least cultivate the seeds on trial basis on a couple of acres of land to see the result. We can always shelve the idea if the result is not satisfactory,” he said.
MLC Sunilgouda Patil raised the issue of shortage of drivers for government ambulances. He said that he had got eight ambulances given to the government in his local area development funds. But since the government has no drivers, the vehicles are being unused.
To this, the Deputy Commissioner Vijaymahantesh Danammanavar said that he will try to hire drivers within the available funds and also said that efforts are being made to open a local helpline number to like 108 for patients. The ambulances could be used for the purpose as the contract between the government and 108 services is getting expired, he noted.
On the issue of distributing Jawar under PDS, the officials said that despite opening procurement centres, the farmers did not come as they found the MSP too meager.
To this, Shivanand Patil and Yatnal asked the Minister to ensure that the Centre hikes MSP to help the farmers to get more money.
Katti said that he has already met the Central Ministers and appraised the matter but due to technical glitches, the centre is not considering the request.
“Since we have tried to address all the issues raised by the Centre, we are hopeful that at least next year, the Government will hike MSP to Rs. 4500 quintal which will encourage the farmers to cultivate Jawar.”
