Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi on Wednesday sought Central intervention for mandating private medical colleges to play their role in the management of the COVID-19 situation in the Union Territory.
In a Whatsapp message to reporters, Ms Bedi said “...been requesting for all medical colleges to be brought on board for so long. Been waiting and requesting. Finally I have had to appeal the PMO and GOI to intervene.”
Seeking the intervention of Centre, the Lt Governor said, “the Union Territory is suffering right now and I as an administrator am duty bound to inform New Delhi. It’s an SOS.’’
Stating that she cannot be an “onlooker,” the Lt Governor said “with so many medical colleges and extraordinary ecosystem in Puducherry, we should have been faring the best in the country.! Whereas we are going down the hill.”
The Lt Governor said only two private medical colleges are doing the testing. There was no use in creating additional bed capacity without using the existing facilities in private medical colleges. “Total bed strength of 5,000 odd in all private medical colleges should be used for people of Puducherry,” Ms Bedi said in the message.
If the government takes over one private medical college under the Disaster Management Act, the Lt Governor said “the rest of the colleges will come to line.”
