Thaindian News

Thiruvananthapuram, June 29 (IANS) The Kerala assembly Tuesday witnessed lighter moments over the absence of Health Minister P.K. Sreemathi when the opposition wanted to discuss the spread of diseases in the state.
Sreemathi left Monday for a visit to the US, with the Congress party taking objection to it.

The house plunged into laughter when Industries Minister Elamaram Kareem, deputizing for Sreemathi, sought to compare her trip to that of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Canada.

“Did we say anything when the prime minister left for abroad when the country is facing lot of problems on account of the indiscriminate fuel price rise?” asked Kareem, raising peels of laughter.

Radhakrishnan, seeking leave of the house to move an adjournment motion on the spread of various diseases in the state, criticized Sreemathi: “Yesterday (Monday) itself more than 10,000 people have reportedly sought treatment for fever and it is at such a time our minister is on a pleasure trip to the US and UK.”

Radhakrishnan said that till Monday there were 500 HINI (swine flu) and 245 dengue cases in the state.

Defending his cabinet colleague, Kareem told the house: “The situation is well within normal limits. Sreemathi is on a trip to the US to discuss stem cell therapy to be carried out at the Malabar Cancer Centre and also to have a discussion on collaboration with a premier diabetes centre in the US.”

At this point, he referred to the prime minister’s trip to attend the G20 summit.

Taking objection to Kareem’s comments, opposition leader Oommen Chandy said: “Please never make irrelevant comparisons. Sreemathi has gone to attend a function of the Federation of Kerala Associations in North America.”