Manning Mizoram: Faltering Freebies; Dispensing Dispensaries
Opinion Watch
Manning Mizoram
The Indian Express has urged upon the Central government to extend assistance to Mizoram amid steady inflow of refugees from Myanmar, as well as Manipur. The daily said that at least 12,000 people from Manipur have crossed over to Mizoram where the people have family ties with Kukis and also Chin people in Myanmar.
The Noida-based daily also stated that the Buddhist Chakma refugees are already staying in Mizoram. The newspaper called upon the Centre to provide food and other relief materials to Mizoram, arguing that the state’s hospital to refugees running away from violence should not become burden on the state.
Manipur defies all attempts to gain normalcy, as two more persons died yesterday, and Mizoram certainly also risks violence spilling over to its land. The Centre needs to show agility and preoccupation with India’s top crisis of the moment with hands on deck approach.
Faltering Freebies
The Economic Times in its Editorial has suggested that the Anna Bhagya Yojna (ABY) of the Siddaramaiah government in Karnataka, 10 kg free rice to each poor family (person) (including 5 kg provided for by the National Food Security Act) is now stuck. The daily said that while the Food Corporation of India has expressed inability to provide 2,28,000 tonnes rice a month, the Congress government will now hand over cash to the 12.8 million beneficiaries.
The business daily has reasoned that there be a political consensus against freebies, arguing that free electricity for farmers have been excessively abused to the detriment of ground water. The newspaper called for a collective political response to the basic social security for all.
Free rice schemes have been insurance bets in several states such as Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and now Karnataka. The clamour for this shows that the people lack dispensable money to source the basic food needs on their own, and that must be counted as failures of the ruling parties.
Dispensing Dispensaries
The Tribune has revealed a sorry state of affairs of the rural dispensaries in Punjab, running without adequate funds for 17 years, with doctors doubling up as pharmacists, while buildings stay in dilapidated conditions. The daily has stated that the rural development department tired of the apathy is now handing them over to the health department.
The Chandigarh-based daily also stated that the ruling Aam Aadmi Party’s blind call to replicate the Mohalla clinics in Punjab has also been damaging for the functioning of the dispensaries. The sorry state of affairs of the dispensaries has been a norm that survived the governments headed by the Congress, Akalis, and now the AAP, suggested the daily. The advent of insurance-based healthcare as a policy by the Centre and the states is creating havoc for the primary health care. This reiterates the notion that the people pay taxes for the politicians to buy votes with freebies, while they are forced to buy education and health at exorbitant costs.
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