Gajendra Singh Negi | Dehradun
Health hassle
The highly disturbing incident in which a patient was allegedly made to wait for more than hour in an ambulance outside the emergency ward of the Government Doon Medical College hospital in Dehradun has yet again exposed the dark underbelly of the health services of the State. Death caught up with the poor patient before the system of the biggest government hospital of the State could even examine him. This 47-year old man was first rushed to the Base hospital in Srinagar from where the doctors referred him to a higher centre. The huge patient load at the AIIMS Rishikesh came in the way of treatment of this patient. It is learnt that the family members of the patient took him to a private hospital in Dehradun which demanded a hefty sum of money before admitting the patient. It is really distressing that successive governments of the State have failed to create a classless, prompt, sensitive, efficient and modern health system for the people in the last 26 years of its creation.
Bridge bungle
The highly efficient officers of the Public Works Department deserve accolades for the ingenious idea of covering up their failure on the collapse of a part of the important Nanda Ki Chowki bridge in Dehradun by claiming that only the approach road and not the bridge got damaged after a spell of heavy monsoon rain on Tuesday morning. With this idea, they tried to counter the known concept that a bridge project involves construction of the approach roads from both the sides and a span. The engineers of the infamous department also tried to blame the changed course of the river flowing beneath the bridge for eating into the base of the approach road and have now started taking measures which ideally should have been the part of any bridge project in the first place. Irrespective of this ingeniousness, the department was forced to act on a war footing on a huge public outcry and stern warning by the chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on the collapse of the multi crore structure within 16 days of its opening following which the collapsed portion was repaired within 12 hours.
Santhosh‘s sojourn
The recent low profile visit of the Bharatiya Janata Party national general secretary (Organisation) BL Santhosh to the provisional State capital Dehradun has become a talking point among the leaders of the ruling BJP. In his visit the powerful leader held meetings with chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and leaders of the party organisation. The meetings purportedly revolved around preparing the roadmap of the party for the Vidhan Sabha elections of 2027 and ironing out issues between the party organisation and the government. In the meetings, Santhosh also took the feedback of the ministers and the performance of the MLAs from the party organisation. The party leaders reportedly expressed their resentment on many issues and complained about the functioning of the State party leadership. Incidentally, Santhosh’s visit came at a time when the State party president Mahendra Bhatt got entangled in an unsavoury slip of tongue controversy while commenting on the recent student agitation and the resignation of Union Education minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
