Bengaluru: Accusing the private hospitals of indulging in “loot” during the COVID-19 pandemic, BJP MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal on Thursday sought to know from his party-led government in Karnataka what it was doing to check it. The former Union Minister cited his own example where he had to shell out a huge amount at a private hospital for the treatment.
“Private hospitals are looting, I was charged Rs 3,80,000 for eleven days, this is the fate of an MLA, what will the poor do,” Yatal asked. Participating in the condolence motion for Union Minister of State for Railways, Suresh Angadi, who died due to coronavirus last night, in the assembly, he quoted MLA Siddu Savadi as saying that recently Rs 18 lakh was charged by a hospital in Bijapur.
“Is there no control (on private hospitals), what is the government doing? We have to ask, what control does the government have on such hospitals, what is the health department doing? They are erratically looting…,” he said. Yatnal, who was also affected by the virus and was in the hospital for about eleven days and has now recovered, said the government has to take strict measures so that we don’t have to keep observing silence as the mark of respect for the deceased.
Despite getting treatment at the country’s foremost medical institution AIIMS, we could not save Angadi, he noted. Referring to the death of Rajya Sabha member Ashok Gasti and some leaders battling for life due to the infection, he said we have to be serious about coronavirus as there may come a situation where we may have to go for lockdown again at least twice a week.
Angadi (65) passed away on Wednesday, days after he tested positive for COVID-19 at the AIIMS trauma centre which has been converted into a dedicated COVID-19 facility. The assembly paid rich tributes to the fourth-term MP from Belagavi.
Paying tributes to Angadi, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa called him “Ajatashatru” while Leader of Opposition in the assembly Siddaramaiah remembered him as a gentleman and good human being. Several legislators recalled his service for the state as Minister and the way he acted as a link between the Centre and state government for getting developmental works done.
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