Leader of Opposition in the Keralam Assembly Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday alleged that the UDF government was trying to "sabotage" the public health sector of the state through its 16-member task force aimed at ensuring health, wellness and longevity in the southern state.
Vijayan, in a Facebook post, said that the former chief secretary of Uttar Pradesh, Deepak Singhal, who has no administrative experience in the health sector, prepared the blueprint of the 16-member 'Kerala Holistic Health, Wellness and Longevity Task Force' which has been constituted to formulate the state's future health policy.
The CPI(M) veteran said that Singhal is currently the head of the Global Trade and Technology Council of India (GTTCI) Healthcare Ventures, which operates in the corporate health sector. He alleged that the healthcare sector in India is controlled by a mafia consisting of corporate hospitals and multinational pharmaceutical companies.
He also claimed that corporate groups like GTTCI are the bridge between big corporate hospitals and insurance monopolies.
"Why else would a private capitalist intermediary rewrite Keralam’s public health policy if not to completely hand over the healthcare sector to corporates? There is no doubt about the real purpose of the schemes, including health insurance, being introduced on the advice of Deepak Singhal," Vijayan contended.
The opposition leader said that when this was pointed out in the assembly, Chief Minister V D Satheesan compared the situation to the LDF government’s appointment of Dr William Hall, an international virologist and one of the founders of the Global Virus Network, as the chief advisor to the Institute of Advanced Virology in Thiruvananthapuram.
"Is the Chief Minister linking a world-renowned virologist with a corporate broker? Dr Hall’s services are invaluable to the Virology Institute. What benefit will Singhal’s services bring to the public health sector in Keralam?" he questioned.
Satheesan, in the assembly, rejected the criticism against the constitution of the task force, saying that its members were selected based on their professional backgrounds and expertise and were included as knowledge partners, not based on political recommendations.
He also defended Singhal's role in the constitution of the task force, contending that there was no vigilance case against the former UP chief secretary and that he had obtained vigilance clearance in 2019.
Vijayan, in his post, however, said that the Keralam society will not accept the justifications put forward by Satheesan and others regarding the task force.
"This corporate collusion of the government is a serious threat to the state's public health sector, which is the common man's sole reliance. The people will unitedly resist the UDF government's secret moves to destroy the public health model that Keralam has built," he contended.
(With inputs from PTI)
