A parliamentary standing committee of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is coming to Chandigarh to talk about different agendas with Punjab, Chandigarh, and Haryana. Parliamentary Committee Chairman Ram Gopal Yadav, along with his team of 13 members, is going to reach Chandigarh on 8 September. The team members will visit the health facilities of UT and both states simultaneously. The committee member has asked the state’s stakeholders to present the current work status before them.
The team members include Indu Bala Goswami, Dr L. Hanumanthaiah, Dr Sanghamitra Maurya, Arjunlal Meena, K.Navaskani, Adv. Adoor Prakash, Hazi Fazlur Rehman, Dr Rajdeep Roy, Dr DNV Senthikumar S, Dr Mahesh Sharma, Dr Sujey Radhakrishna Vikhepatil, and Dr Krishan Pal Singh Yadav.
The parliamentary committee has different agendas to discuss with PGIMER, UT Chandigarh health department, Punjab, and Haryana. The agendas include how states are working on Covid vaccine, Ayushman Bharat, Covid-19-related researches, Cancer care for the poor.
While talking to The Daily Guardian, Dr A.K. Gupta, Dean, Research cum Medical Superintendent of PGIMER, stated, “Parliamentary Committee will visit us on 9 September. As far as research work is concerned, PGIMER has over 182 research projects comprising Covid-related researches that are currently functional worth more than Rs 100 crore.”
In the case of Punjab, there is little research work being done by Punjab doctors as the Punjab government is counting on PGIMER for this. While speaking to The Daily Guardian and on the condition of anonymity, a senior professor from Patiala, said, “Punjab had no time for research as doctors here failed to curb the Covid mortality rate that was exceeding rapidly during the second wave.” He added, “Punjab government did try to facilitate at many grounds but due to lack of zeal amongst the researchers or doctors, no remarkable research paper has come out from Punjab so far”.