BJP lawmaker hits out at Goa health minister over Covid mismanagement

Atanasio Babush Monserrate asked chief minister Pramod Sawant to take charge of the health ministry. He said many BJP lawmakers share his views but were afraid to speak out because of Vishwajit Rane’s “vindictive nature”

Ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lawmaker Atanasio Babush Monserrate has hit out at Goa health minister Vishwajit Rane for failing to put in place adequate facilities in anticipation of the second Covid-19 wave and said he would demand a Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry into the affairs of his department.

Goa CM Pramod Sawant. (File photo)

“People are dying... and these people [Rane] have no remorse whatsoever. Did one statement come from the health minister that ‘I am sorry for the deaths’...”

Monserrate asked chief minister Pramod Sawant to take charge of the health ministry. “I am upset because our people are dying. And we cannot do anything.”

Monserrate said many BJP lawmakers share his views but were afraid to speak out because of Rane’s “vindictive nature”. He added he has written to Sawant and asked him to call a meeting of lawmakers to take Rane to task there. “..I also want to know the views of all the other MLAs [members of legislative assembly]. This fellow [Rane] has...a vindictive attitude.”

Rane said he is answerable to Sawant. “If he [Monserrate] wants to make any allegations I do not want to respond to that. I have no comment to offer,” Rane said.

Rane told CNN on May 7 that it was an error of judgement to not impose a lockdown in Goa sooner before the state’s positivity rate shot up. “This [lockdown] should have come much earlier... I had suggested we should go through a stringent lockdown more than 15 days back and even 15 days back was too late, we needed it perhaps a month back... sometimes administratively we need to take decisions that have a balance and many times administrators holding positions sometimes make errors in judgement and I think this is one of those cases where we have made some error in judgement and the cases have spread,” Rane said.

“We had thousands of people coming in January and had very less restrictions in place at that time. We had the whole of India coming into Goa at that time in the month of December, January and February… The opening of tourism in December has led to the situation in Goa and we are reporting the highest positivity rate in the country.”

Sawant maintained lockdowns do more harm than good before finally announcing a curfew for two weeks. He gave the charge of oxygen supply to collectors from the health department. Sawant blamed those at the helm of the Goa Medical College [and Hospital] for mismanagement in oxygen supply and for not doing enough to ensure regular supply or to apprise him of the situation.

“We will streamline the process of ensuring that the supply is adequate. We will allocate the work properly.”

Rane has called for a probe into the deaths of 26 patients at the hospital amid reports of oxygen shortages on Monday.

On Wednesday, Goa recorded 75 deaths, the highest since the pandemic began, taking the toll to 1,804. The state has 32,836 active cases.