BJP MLA Maithili Thakur took on her own party’s Health Minister, Mangal Pandey, in the Bihar assembly over the condition of a government hospital in her Alinagar constituency, saying official records did
not reflect what she had personally seen on the ground and urging immediate corrective action.
During Question Hour, Thakur rejected the minister’s written reply that suggested the hospital building was not in a severely bad state and only required repairs.
In her intervention, she told the House, “I am not completely satisfied with the minister’s response, because it states that the building is not in a bad condition, it just needs to be repaired.”
“But I myself have gone and seen that the building is in a bad condition,” she said.
She went on to describe how limited infrastructure and manpower were affecting patient care, saying, “There is a health care system running in a small room there. There is no MBBS doctor, there were two MBBS doctors there in the past, but not now.”
Referring to the reply’s mention of another category of doctor, she added, “It is written in the answer that there is another specialist, to which I agree, but we need two MBBS doctors there.”
Framing her remarks, the legislator said, “I am not ordering the minister, I am just making a request to him.”
She underlined Pandey’s long association with the health department, noting, “Because I was very young, and since then I have been seeing the health minister as a minister. I have been seeing him working in the health department. So I want him to do it for the benefit of the public, because it is very important.”
Stressing the scale of dependence on the facility, Thakur told the House, “Five to seven panchayats depend on this hospital. It is clearly believed that 40,000 to 50,000 people benefit from this hospital.”
She also highlighted its strategic location within her constituency, saying, “And this hospital is in the centre of my entire committee, with which the two branches, Ghanshyampur and Alinagar, both can benefit from it.”
Concluding her intervention, she urged focused attention on the matter.
“So I would like to request him to pay special attention to this. Thank you.”
The episode drew attention because it came from a ruling-party legislator of the Bharatiya Janata Party publicly pressing a senior minister from her own side.
In his response placed before the House, Pandey had maintained that the government was addressing infrastructure concerns, pointing to approvals for new hospital buildings in several areas, ongoing construction at some sites, and a phased plan to repair or renovate facilities identified as extremely dilapidated.
