Jully slams govt over over child deaths, healthcare gaps

Jaipur: Leader of Opposition Tikaram Jully Saturday visited Lalpura village in Dhariyawad and met families of tribal children who died due to an unknown disease, criticising the state govt for failing to identify the cause and for staff shortages in local health facilities.

Jully said innocent lives were being lost in backward tribal areas such as Lasadiya and Dhariyawad while the health department failed to determine the reason behind the illness. He also said several posts of doctors and nursing personnel were vacant and needed urgent attention.

Highlighting the gaps in the medical infrastructure, he said that at the Lasadiya Community Health Centre, eight out of 10 posts were lying vacant. “Where are these poor people supposed to go?” he asked.

Jully said he spoke over the phone with Gayatri Rathore, principal secretary in the medical and health department, urging immediate intervention.

Accusing the state govt of insensitivity, Jully said no senior govt functionary visited the affected families. “This shows the govt is only concerned about vote-bank politics,” he alleged.

Calling the deaths “extremely unfortunate,” Jully claimed 15 children died in quick succession -- govt has only acknowledged 7 deaths -- but families were neither compensated, nor assured that a fix was being found for the disease.

Jully also accused the BJP govt of scrapping the Rs 5 lakh assistance programme under Congress’ Chiranjeevi Yojana in cases of serious distress, and alleged the govt had left people to fend for themselves.

Claiming that the govt was focused on its political survival rather than on governance, the LoP said the CM’s repeated trips to Delhi were diverting attention from pressing issues in the state, particularly in tribal regions.

Jully also alleged that funds under the Tribal Sub-Plan remained unutilised and tenders for essential supplies to hostels were not issued despite assurances by the govt on the floor of the Rajasthan Assembly.