For the past two days, Minister of state for health has been openly criticising health secretary and ministry babus for 'red-tapism' (read delaying projects dear to him).
The spat between minister of state for health Dinesh Trivedi and health secretary K Sujatha Rao is making the government worried.
With health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad abroad, the government is closely watching the duel between the bureaucrat and the politician. Since Trivedi is a coalition partner (Trinamool Congress), no one wants to get into a tussle with him.
For the past two days, Trivedi has been openly criticising Rao and ministry babus for “red-tapism” (read delaying projects dear to him).
Trivedi’s charge against Rao is that she has created hurdles in the path of his dream project —- a dedicated portal on health. The portal was supposed to have information about top hospitals, doctors and every health-related matter.
Trivedi had announced the creation of this portal after consultations with national knowledge commission chief Sam Pitroda in November 2009, but he’s feeling offended because Rao has shown him the rule book.
Rao says she is not empowered to clear high-value projects on her own. “The portal is a good idea but it has financial implications. The project will cost more than Rs140 crore.
Projects requiring such big amounts have to be cleared by the finance ministry. The minister is aware it takes time for any project to be cleared from the highest level. I am not scuttling any project.
In fact, my officers are preparing an EFC note to be sent to the finance ministry. But the minister needs to have patience,” Rao told DNA.
Rao is known to be a tough officer who does not bow down to pressure, and she has the solid backing of her officers.
“Mr Trivedi doesn’t realise he is an MoS who has limited power. He spends most of his time in West Bengal and is hardly here in office to be involved in the ministry’s working. Since his proposals do not get support in the ministry, he gets frustrated,” a senior official said.
Trivedi told DNA it isn’t just the portal that he’s unhappy about. “Portal is just one issue. I have nothing personally against Rao or anybody else but I am not happy with the functioning of the ministry. There are some very serious issues,” Trivedi said.
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