Question hour: State govt mulling body to regulate private hospitals
Yes, we are receiving complaints (against private hospitals)... Patients are being fleeced in the name of exorbitant medicines and room rent.
CHANDIGARH: The Punjab government is planning to set up a regulatory body to monitor functioning of private hospitals in the state.
Health and family welfare minister Brahm Mohindra made this disclosure while replying to a query during the Question Hour in the state assembly.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislator from Maur, Jagdev Singh, had raised the issue of alleged fleecing of patients in private hospitals across the state.
“Yes, we are receiving complaints (against private hospitals),” said Mohindra. “Patients are being fleeced in the name of exorbitant medicines and room rent. A monitoring body for private hospitals is on the cards.”
The regulatory body will monitor the room rent and “excessive” medicines prescribed to the patients, he said.
However, the minister did not mention any deadline for setting up the body. ‘DIST ADMN CAN ALLOW BULLOCK-CART RACES’ Toursim and cultural affairs minister Navjot Singh Sidhu said the state government is not opposed to reviving bullock cart races at the Kila Raipur Games, also known as Punjab’s Mini Olympics.
These races were the most popular feature of the event till 2014, when they were stopped after the Supreme Court ban on bull-taming contests of Jallikattu in Tamil Nadu.
Sidhu said despite the ban, there were provisions to hold the races.
“The Union minister of environment and forest has provided for holding the races if any nongovernmental organisation (NGO) approaches the deputy commissioner (DC) concerned,” he said. “The DCs have been given the powers to allow the races with certain conditions.”
The minister was responding to a query by Congress’ Gill MLA Kuldeep Vaid.
Later, Vaid, in a supplementary question, said the conditions set to take the DC’s permission are very tough to be fulfilled. He called for a legislation to allow the Kila Raipur races, as has been done in similar cases by Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka governments.
Sidhu said only chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh can take a call on this.
‘SOCIAL PENSIONS
EVERY 3 MONTHS’
The Punjab government will be transferring social security pensions directly into the bank accounts of beneficiaries collectively every three months.
“There has been a backlog of many months in the distribution of pensions because of the mess created by the previous government,” said social security minister Razia Sultana, responding to a query by Congress MLA Nathu Ram. “But now our government has released ₹274 crore to clear the backlog. The pensioners in Amritsar, Jalandhar and Ludhiana districts will get the pensions for up to December 2016 while the remaining will get these till January 2017.”
Meanwhile, on fellow Congress MLA Randeep Singh Nabha’s question on fulfilling the pre-poll promise of domestic and commercial power at ₹5 per unit, power minister Rana Gurjit Singh evaded a reply. “Time cannot be specific,” said Rana.