Thaindian News

Panaji, Feb 3 (IANS) Goa’s ruling and opposition legislators Thursday accused the state’s Health Minister Vishwajeet Rane of irregularities in the process of privatising a district hospital in the state.Congress legislator Dayanand Narvekar, who led the charge against his party colleague in the state assembly, said that several Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) guidelines were violated by the minister while privatising the hospital at north Goa’s Mapusa town, some 15 km from here, using public private partnership (PPP) mode.

“This is a major fraud. On the one hand the health minister claims the government is still in the process of evolving a PPP model, and on the other hand the health department has already issued a RFQ (Request for Qualification),” said Narvekar, a former deputy chief minister.

The RFQ is a prescribed eligibility criteria floated by the state health department for selection of a privatisation partner.

“The health minister is a chairman of the monitoring committee of PPP for the Mapusa district hospital. This is in complete violation of CVC guidelines,” Narvekar said.

“The entire process is rigged in favour of one particular health service provider company which the minister is interested in,” Narvekar said, without naming the firm.

“The entire process which the minister is talking about raises several question marks,” leader of opposition Manohar Parrikar said.

Minutes after facing a volley of criticism from both ruling and opposition members, the health minister said he had resigned from the crucial committee which monitors the privatisation process.

“The RFQ has lapsed and it will be floated again. There is no question of a scam,” Rane told reporters during lunch break.

The district hospital in question caters to 2.1 lakh out-patient department (OPD) patients every year, in addition to nearly 2,000 gynaecology cases annually.