New government in Rajasthan is accused of trying to sabotage free drug scheme
BMJ 2014; 348 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.g2729 (Published 15 April 2014) Cite this as: BMJ 2014;348:g2729
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Title: Premature to accuse new government for sabotaging free drug scheme.
The news article contributed by Dinsa Sachan is seems to be politically motivated and it looks like author has some inherent interest.
This is very premature to accuse new government for sabotaging free drug scheme. Immediately after coming to power the Vasundhara Raje Scindia, Chief Minister of newly formed Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) government called for reviewing the scheme and clearly mentioned that the government will work towards better implementation of the scheme. In the same context Mr. Rajendra Rathore, Health Minister, Government of Rajasthan met with senior officials and instructed them for suggestion for improving the access and quality of this initiative.
Every government has its own style of working and the new government never said anything about for closing the scheme. Although, initially there was a delay in issuing the purchase orders and this may be due to administrative reshuffling. But in the last month lots of purchase orders have been issued.
Furthermore, the author said removal of Dr. Samit Sharma, then MD and In-charge of the scheme was politically motivated. In this context it should be noted that Sharma was holding this post since inception of this scheme. In India on and average tenure of senior bureaucrats for any specific post is not more than 2 years. Therefore, terming his transfer politically motivated can be considered as presenting the wrong view and providing false information to the readers.
Moreover, this information given by Chhaya Pachauli, an activist with the Chittorgarh based
NGO Prayas. This should be noted that Mr. Narendra Gupta, founder of Prayas is fighting this general election from Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) ticket. The AAP is main rival of BJP both at national and state level. Its look like by providing such false, ill information against BJP government in Rajasthan, Chhaya Pachauli is trying to malign the new government and this may benefits his boss Mr. Narendra Gupta in election. The BMJ should not allow readers associated with political party to comment or publish anything and I have noted that authors have not declared any competing interest. That means they have some interest and Chhaya Pachauli is associated with politically backed organization.
This could be a possibility that the new government may not take good care off of this scheme, but we need to watch and should give time to the new government before making such irrelevant charges. Therefore, this is not right time to accuse the new government.
The reputed journal like BMJ should cross examine the fact before publishing such articles.
Competing interests: No competing interests
Re: New government in Rajasthan is accused of trying to sabotage free drug scheme
Dear Editor,
I am afraid I have to disagree with Ms Priyanka Srisrimal's comments.
It is well known that in general, and with the government in India in particular, it is difficult to get a good thing going but very easy to dismantle it. What is possibly happening in the state of Rajasthan in India is a quiet dismantling of a most useful public health program by neglect. The Chief Minister herself during the run up to the state assembly elections had said that the previous government was feeding the people poison in the name of free medicines. That sent certainly wrong signals to those who have been keen on improving medicine access to the poor - and enthused branded medicine lobbies and other vested interests eager to bad mouth the program. Governments in India do not close welfare programs, they run it down. That way the ruling party can absolve itself of blame and even claim to have "saved" public expenditure.
For any poor people-oriented government the free medicines program should have been a jewel in the crown considering the need and demand of millions of poor people in the state of Rajasthan. But the newly elected Rajasthan government has given enough indications that it may downgrade the program. For instance, by appointing a senior bureaucrat who is on the verge of retirement to head the program; secondly, by delaying the placement of a new cycle of annual orders; and thirdly, by transferring, before even reviewing the program, the previous head of the Rajasthan Medical Services Corporation, a pediatrician who is also part of the elite Indian Administrative Service.
Incidentally the program was also to include free services for laboratory and radiology investigations. The promise of the latter along with the free medicines program saw unprecedented crowds of poor patients at the public health facilities.
It is also incorrect to attribute motivations to public health professionals and activists who have been demanding such a free medicine scheme for a long time - certainly much before the Aam Aadmi Party was even on the drawing board.
Maybe some of us, including this writer, are over reacting. We will watch even as we give the government a long rope.
Sincerely,
S.Srinivasan
Low Cost Standard Therapeutics, Vadodara, India
Competing interests: Conflict of Interest: The author is part of a nation wide community health movement which believes active government intervention in health is the way to go in India.