Kolkata, May 18 (PTI) Newly elected BJP MLAs of West Bengal conducted spot checks of state-run hospitals and held meetings with bureaucrats governing the health and education sectors on Monday, with an aim
to "revamp" the two domains and address ailments, party sources said.
While BJP legislators Swapan Dasgupta and Shankar Ghosh held a meeting with senior officials of the state education department at Bikash Bhavan in Salt Lake, a team of eight MLAs met bureaucrats and officers of the health department at Swasthya Bhavan.
“There has been a visible deterioration in the state-run education system over the past few years. It is our intention to bring the sector out of this mess and plan for a revamped system in the near future,” Ghosh told reporters after the meeting.
“We need cooperation of all stakeholders in the education sector to plan for the future and formulate the state’s education policy accordingly,” he said.
Sources in the department said the meeting was held to prepare the necessary grounds for implementation of the Centre’s new education policy, approved by the Union cabinet in 2020.
The task, they added, was to revamp Bengal’s school and higher education structure so that schemes like the PM SHRI (Pradhan Mantri Schools for Rising India), a programme to upgrade and modernise over 14,500 existing schools into model institutions, could be implemented.
Newly elected BJP MLA from Bidhannagar and clinical oncologist, Sharadwat Mukherjee, paid a surprise visit to the local civic body-run Matri Sadan Hospital and the Bidhannagar Sub-divisional Hospital, and alleged gross negligence in infrastructure upkeep and in the quality of services at both institutions.
“I found that doctors were missing, lab technicians working in shifts despite little work pressure, insufficient nurses, besides unused but expensive medical equipment gathering dust. Very few patients actually turn up at these hospitals, even for treatment at the Out Patient Department,” the legislator said.
Mukherjee, along with eight MLAs from the state’s saffron camp who also double up as doctors, later met senior officials of the health department, including Health Secretary N S Nigam, at the Swasthya Bhavan.
The health and education portfolios are currently overseen by Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari. PTI SMY RBT
