Youth Congress demands ouster of Health Minister

Kottayam, June 14 (UNI) Kerala Youth Congress President T Sidiq today demanded that the State Health Minister P K Sreemathy should be ousted for her reported failure in discharging her responsibilities as a minister.

Addressing a press conference here, Mr Sidiq alleged that the state health department was a total failure.

The Health Minister had failed totally in discharging her responsibilities. She should either resign and should go back to the teaching profession or the Chief Minister should oust her, he demanded.

He described as ''shameful incident'' seeking military support for killing mosquitoes.

This was the first incident in the country after the outbreak of plague in Gujarat, that military's assistance was being sought to contain an epidemic in a state, he claimed.

He also criticised Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan and state CPI (M) leadership for blaming media syndicate for blowing the epidemic out of proportion.

It was unbecoming of a political party to do so, he said and demanded that the Home Minister should withdraw his statements.

Referring to the Munnar eviction, he criticised the discriminatory attitude of the government. It should adopt stern action against the encroachers irrespective of their political or other affiliation.

The state committee of the Youth Congress would meet at Thiruvananthapuram on June 18 to chalk out the course of action including agitations against the government.

If the Health Minister was not resigning, agitation would be launched in support of the demand, he said and added that the Youth Congress would stage agitations of its own and in cooperation with the youth wing of other UDF constituents.

Mr Sidiq, who came here to visit viral fever affected areas in the regio, said the Youth Congress activists would actively participate in the drive against the epidemic.

UNI