Chandigarh: MP Tewari flags gaps, inadequacies in health infrastructure

Manish Tewari, a member of Parliament from Chandigarh, on Friday raised concerns about serious gaps and inadequacies in Chandigarh's health infrastructure.

The Congress MP was reacting to the reply in Parliament by Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Pratap Rao Jadhav, to his queries on health infrastructure data in Chandigarh.

Tewari has sought the information regarding total number of sanctioned regular posts of doctors in the health department of the Union Territory,  the date on which new posts of doctors were last created and the number and categories of such posts, total number of vacancies against sanctioned posts at present, including specialty-wise details such as medicine, surgery, anaesthesia, radiology and paediatrics and number of doctors currently working on deputation in Chandigarh, state/UT-wise.

In response, the minister said that data on the details of sanctioned posts for doctors and specialists under state governments/UTs are not maintained centrally.

Tewari criticised the Government of India for "selective amnesia" regarding its responsibility for Chandigarh's governance, particularly in addressing critical gaps in the Union Territory’s health infrastructure.

Tewari said, “It is extremely disappointing that the Government of India starts suffering from selective amnesia and forgets that since Chandigarh is a Union Territory and does not have its own legislature, the central government is directly accountable to Parliament for its administration. The short shrift that has been given to such a detailed question is indicative of the fact that there are very serious gaps and inadequacies in the health infrastructure.”

"A substantial bulk of 167 doctors is on deputation from Punjab and Haryana. There has been little local recruitment of doctors for decades. Many critical specialties are vacant,” he added.

He said he will personally raise this perfunctory reply with Health Minister JP Nadda.