THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Tuesday was not a good day for Health Minister Veena George. The minister suffered back-to-back setbacks in the Assembly, the first when Speaker M B Rajesh warned her for giving vague replies to MLAs’ questions and the second when Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan intervened following her response on rabies vaccines.
All this happened amid reports of a possible role change for Veena owing to her alleged inept handling of the health department and her apparent disregard for politicians from the ruling front. Rajesh’s warning came on the complaint by Congress MLA AP Anil Kumar that Veena did not give proper answers to questions on the purchases made by Kerala Medical Services Corporation Ltd. The Opposition had alleged corruption in the purchase of PPE kits during the Covid pandemic.
Anil Kumar alleged that the government had been following the tactic for some time. “Vague answers are given to different subsections of a question to cover up facts,” he said. Though his petition accused Industries Minister P Rajeeve of the same, Rajesh spared the latter from a warning.
Veena defends rabies vax, CM intervenes
A communication from the speaker’s office to Anil Kumar said Rajesh had told Veena that furnishing unclear or same answers to different sub-sections of a question was not a good trend and should not be repeated. It said that the speaker had asked the minister to give proper answers to MLAs’ questions. Meanwhile, Pinarayi’s intervention came after Veena failed to give a convincing reply to Opposition’s arguments during the discussion on an adjournment notice on rabies cases and related deaths.
When the Opposition highlighted concerns over the quality of anti-rabies vaccine used in the state, Veena defended their quality citing procurement rules. However, the CM intervened and said an expert committee would be formed to study the quality of anti-rabies vaccines distributed in the state. Leader of Opposition VD Satheesan welcomed the announcement.