House passes Nursing Home bill

Raipur, Aug 03, 2010

The state Assembly on Tuesday passed the Chhattisgarh Nursing Home & Health Care Establishment (CNHHCE) bill 2010 that was termed as “tabled in haste” by the Opposition which also wanted specific changes in it and felt that it should first be handed over to the select committee for incorporation of all the significant factors. Health Minister Amar Agrawal assured the House that the bill aimed to secure the interest of the citizens and to control the private nursing homes so that the health services in the state could be improved.
Agrawal said the department felt it important to propose the bill considering the proportion of government and private hospitals in the state which was 20% and 80% respectively. “Since the CNHHCE is linked to the society and the common man’s life, we thought it would be unjust if we would not ask the 80% of the private hospitals to follow the norms of establishment and medical service,” he said.
Replying on the remark of the Leader of the Opposition Ravindra Chobey regarding handing over the proposal first to the select committee, Agrawal said it was tabled only after being forwarded by the medical experts. When Choubey pointed that no expert had left in the Health department as a majority of the officials and employees were decamping due to charges of irregularities, Agrawal said the government had rather put all the guilty ones behind the bar.
The minister also denied charges of the Opposition that the government wanted to tighten the noose on the doctors through CNHHCE and said the sole intention to table the bill was to make organise the private medical services.
Choubey asked why the government did not made proper guidelines for the private hospitals like BSR Apollo Hospital, Chandulal Chandrakar memorial Hospital and other major medical centres where the government aided patients get treatment under Sanjeevni scheme. “We have repeatedly demanded that these hospital administrations misbehave with the poor people and even refuse to hand over the bodies of their kin before complete payment,” he said.
Choubey said the bill should also have contained gradation of private hospitals like small dispensaries and clinics to nursing homes and multispecialty hospitals.


Chhattisgarhi echoes in state Assembly

Chhattisgarh Rajbhasha Ayog bill 2010 passed unanimously

Raipur, Aug 03, 2010

Chhattisgarh language echoed in the Vidhan Sabha on Tuesday as Chhattisgarh Rajbhasha Ayog (CRA) bill 2010 was passed in the House unanimously. Culture Minister Brijmohan Agrawal said the government aimed to implement Chhattisgarhi in the entire state. Earlier, the legislators from both ruling and Opposition parties used Chhattisgarhi while taking part in the debate on the bill.
Hailing the bill, the Leader of the Opposition Ravindra Choubey said government had done little to publicise Chhattisgarhi and it should have at least implemented in all its offices. He further asked from the minister why he did not any course on Chhattisgarhi at school or college level. “At least the department could have commenced a course like ‘diploma in functional Chhattisgarhi’ in any of the state universities,” he said.
Choubey demanded from the Chief Minister to ensure that all the media briefings taken by the ministers, too, should be in Chhattisgarhi so that fourth estate could publicise it through its effective mode.
He said Agrawal should first make Chhattisgarhi mandatory in his own department to set an example, especially by making all the writing works in the state language including tenders. He further suggested that training in Chhattisgarhi should be imparted to all the government officials and employees including IAS officials.
Congress MLA Paresh Bagbahra said the government should make proper policy for Chhattisgarhi while another legislator from his party Pratima Chandrakar demanded from the government to provide more opportunities to the local Chhattisgarhi artists.
The BJP MLA Phoolchand Singh said Chhattisgarhi should be included in school courses as third language after Hindi and English. He also demanded from the government to announce August 3 as Chhattisgarhi day as the bill on the state language was passed on this date.
Congress legislator Shiv Kumar Daharia said the bill should have been tabled much earlier.


Democracy is a lifestyle, not ruling process: Speaker

House adjourned sine die

Raipur, Aug 03, 2010

Democracy is a lifestyle, not a ruling process. The future of democracy and parliamentary procedures depend on the works and behaviour of the members of the House. The words were expressed by state Assembly Speaker Dharamlal Kaushik on the concluding day of the seven-day long monsoon session of the Vidhan Sabha on Tuesday. He said the winter session of the House would tentatively commence in the second week of December 2010.
Kaushik informed that the House conducted debate over 34 hours in seven days. The House received 689 questions of which 249 starred questions were accepted and debate was conducted on 51. In this session, nine non-binding resolutions were received of which three were moved for debate. Where two non-binding resolutions were passed, the House also passed one government resolution.
Kaushik informed that the House received 51 adjournment motions of which 41 were accepted for debate, five were dismissed and four were converted into call attention motions.
Similarly, the House received 334 call attention motions of which 91 were accepted, 195 dismissed and 48 were converted into zero hour questions. Kaushik further informed that eight bills were tabled in the House in the monsoon session and all were passed.
Chief Minister Raman Singh said he was bit apprehensive that to which height the decorum of the House would be maintained in the backdrop of shameful acts in some of the state Assemblies in other parts of the country. “However, I was confident that the Opposition would play as positive role in the House as it had done in the past,” he said.
Singh further said that the debates on all the issues were fruitful and praised the Opposition for its active participation. He said the long debate on naxal issue on the first day of the monsoon session indicated that both the ruling party as well as the Opposition seriously wanted to attend the House proceedings.
Leader of the Opposition Ravindra Choubey said the Opposition always wanted to utilise every moment of the House proceedings and to raise public-related issues.