Lalu slams Nitish Kumar over Bihar healthcare, JD(U) says RJD chief has amnesia

Lalu Prasad has been posting a series of photographs of primary health centres in Sitamarhi, Sheikhpura, Kaimur and Madhubani to name a few, alleging their neglect during CM Nitish Kumar’s tenure had turned them either into buffalo shelters or unusable locked properties

Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad has made his presence in Bihar politics felt with continuous attacks on chief minister Nitish Kumar’s handling of Covid-19 pandemic and the poor state of healthcare system since his release on bail in fodder scam cases in April this year.

alu Prasad recently claimed that Nitish Kumar’s good governance and development existed only on ‘paper’. HT Photo

On Tuesday, Prasad posted pictures of one dilapidated building, claiming it was the referral hospital in Saharsa district, which he said was in a shambles like “thousands of other primary health centres” in the state.

“The referral hospital in Saharsa, built at a cost of ₹14 crore, was inaugurated by me as the chief minister in 1995 to provide healthcare to lakhs of people living on both sides of east and west Kosi embankment. But it has been ruined, like thousands of other primary health centres, by [the] one [person] who is narrow and negative minded,” the RJD chief tweeted, taking indirect potshots at the chief minister.

The former railway minister has been posting a series of photographs of primary health centres in Sitamarhi, Sheikhpura, Kaimur and Madhubani to name a few, alleging their neglect during CM Nitish Kumar’s tenure had turned them either into buffalo shelters or unusable locked properties.

In a tweet posted on Monday, Prasad accused Nitish Kumar of shutting down a PHC in Kumar’s home district of Nalanda just because it had been set up during the RJD government’s rule.

“Nitish closed the PHC in his home district [of] Nalanda because it was set up by me during my government. But the PHC is shown as operational in pink [government] files,” Lalu said.

In another recent tweet, Prasad claimed that Nitish Kumar’s good governance and development existed only on ‘paper’ and that “thousands of PHCs set up during the RJD’s rule” had been shut down by the NDA government but shown as running in government records. He also alleged that crores of rupees sanctioned for these PHCs were being diverted.

RJD’s top leaders feel the Yadav strongman is slowly returning to mainstream politics with his tweets. “There is no bar on politics for Laluji. He cannot contest polls but will become more active in politics in days to come,” said Bhola Yadav, former MLA and a close aide of the RJD chief. Yadav said could soon return to Patna once the Covid situation improves and the lockdown ends. Lalu Prasad is currently staying with his eldest daughter and RJD MP Misa Bharti in New Delhi,

A few weeks after leaving AIIMS after getting bail, an ailing Prasad, attended a meeting of party MLAs but it had to be cut short since his oxygen level was low. He had then asked party workers to start community kitchens named Lalu Rasoi in their respective areas to provide free food to poor people affected by Covid and the subsequent lockdown.

The ruling Janata Dal-United (JD-U) MLC (member of legislative council) and former minister Neeraj Kumar said the RJD chief was suffering from “memory loss’ or else he wouldn’t have forgotten the “pathetic” state of medical care in Bihar during his party’s 15-years of rule, which resulted in flight of doctors from the state.

“During RJD’s rule, only 39 patients used to be treated in government hospitals per month on an average, whereas now, 10,000 patients visit government hospitals each month on an average. Lalu is suffering from memory loss while his heir apparent (Tejashwi Yadav) has hardly any knowledge since he has no interest in legislative business and stays away on tours,” Kumar said.

Refuting Lalu’s allegation of neglect of PHCs under Nitish Kumar’s tenure, he said the healthcare system had witnessed a turnaround with ANM (Auxiliary Nursing and Midwifery) colleges set up in all 54 sub-divisions of the state along with GNM (nursing) and para-medical institutions.

“How is it that Lalu’s oxygen level goes down during a RJD meeting but his twitter level goes up? The RJD chief should check facts and should know that during his government, only ₹64 crore was spent on an average in the health sector. But now, more than ₹64 crore is spent every year only from the CM relief fund to treat patients suffering from serious illness,” he added.