A standoff has arisen between Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak and Additional Chief Secretary Medical and Health Amit Mohan Prasad regarding the transfer of UP doctors. Actually Brajesh Pathak is also the Medical and Health Minister of UP. In such a situation, when he had gone for the BJP’s national executive meeting in Hyderabad, doctors were transferred in many districts of the state.
After his return from Hyderabad, Pathak is said to be angry about the transfers. He has written a letter to Additional Chief Secretary Prasad saying that the entire procedure was not followed for the transfer of doctors in the state. The Indian Express quoted sources as saying that Amit Mohan Prasad, in response to the minister’s letter, said that the correct procedure has been followed in these transfers. Which is usually done by the end of June every year.
Actually, Amit Mohan Prasad was heading the Health Department even amid the COVID-19 epidemic. Even then, Pathak had questioned the functioning of the department. The stand-off between Amit Mohan Prasad and Brajesh Pathak came to light when a letter written by Pathak to Prasad became public on 4 July.
In this letter written in Hindi, Pathak wrote, “I have come to know that in all the transfers that have taken place in the current session, the transfer policy has not been fully followed. In such a situation, full details of the people transferred and the reasons therefor should be given. It is written in the letter that I have been informed that the districts of the state including Lucknow, where specialist doctors are needed in big hospitals, have been shifted but no appointment has been made in their place.
He wrote that Lucknow is the capital of the state, where there is already a shortage of specialist doctors and patients in critical condition are referred to Lucknow from other districts for better treatment. At the same time, Brajesh Pathak has also sought information about the arrangements made for better operation of medical services after the transfer of such a large number of doctors from important and big hospitals of Lucknow.
This is not the first time Brajesh Pathak has expressed his displeasure. He did the same in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. During that time he was the Law Minister in the Yogi government.