UNB, Dhaka :
Health Minister Mohammad Nasim on Wednesday urged the Ministry of Local Government and Cooperatives to take action against the administrator of Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) for leasing out open spaces around four important public hospitals in the city to cattle market bidders, disrupting healthcare services.
“As per an inter-ministerial meeting, areas around hospitals were not supposed to be leased out to cattle market bidders. Even the DNCC administrator did it violating the decision of the meeting…this was done illegally…. he is an irresponsible man and a criminal. So, I urge the Local Government Ministry to take action against him,” Nasim said.
The Health Minister was talking to reporters at his Secretariat office on the first working day after the Eid and Puja vacations.
As in previous years, the DNCC reportedly leased out an open space to a bidder to set up a cattle market. The location is very close to the National Institute of Ophthalmology and Hospital at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar. The National Institute of Traumatology and
Orthopaedic Rehabilitation (Nitor), Dhaka Shishu Hospital and National Institute of Neurosciences and Hospital are also a few yards off the cattle market.
Also nearby are the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, National Institute of Mental Health and Hospital and National Institute of Kidney Diseases and Urology.
Thousands of patients had to suffer to avail themselves of medical services at the important hospitals as a large number of sacrificial animals were put on sale at the huge cattle market.
The minister told the journalists that they, as per the decision of the inter-ministerial meeting, had informed the city corporation two months before the Eid-ul-Azha not to allow cattle markets around the hospitals disrupting the movement of patients.
Noting that the DNCC administrator committed a criminal offence, the Health Minister also urged the authorities concerned so that such open spaces around hospitals are not leased out to bidders for setting cattle markets in the future. He also sought the Prime Minister’s intervention in this regard.
Nasim recalled that they had sent a letter to the Local Government Ministry urging it not to allow any cattle market nearby the hospitals-National Institute of Ophthalmology and Hospital, the National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopaedic Rehabilitation (Nitor), Dhaka Shishu Hospital and National Institute of Neurosciences and Hospital.
When his attention was drawn to the Health Ministry’s harsh remarks against him, DNCC administrator Md Faruque Jalil told UNB that he was not aware about Nasim’s remarks and he, therefore, cannot make any comment about that.
Faruque, however, said they did not lease out any space around the hospitals for setting up any cattle market. “There might be a spillover of any cattle market onto the hospital areas due to the pressure of huge cattle, but there had been no leasing out of any space.”
About the inter-ministerial meeting as the minister referred to, the DNCC administrator said he had no knowledge of such decision.
