Patna, March 5: The NDA today got over half a dozen of its women MLAs to speak in favour of the state health department’s functioning, two days before International Women’s Day.
Besides, the alliance had another woman MLA, Guddi Devi, to preside over the sitting that passed the budgetary demand of over Rs 3,085 crore for the 2012-13 fiscal.
“You do not have a single woman MLA on your side,” health minister Ashwini Choubey said, taking a jibe at the RJD bench and recalling that the infant and maternal mortality rates were high during its tenure despite having a woman chief minister (read Rabri Devi). Incidentally, 33 women candidates got elected in the existing assembly, of whom 32 belong to NDA and one is an Independent (Rashmi Jyoti) whose membership has been suspended in the house. The NDA’s success in the 2010 election was attributed to the higher turnout of women voters. It was not surprising that Choubey announced another programme for women —Jaiprabha Arogya Vhani Express, a fleet of 504 ambulances that would go to rural parts of the state, get the pregnant women registered and ensure that they get safe institutional delivery before being taken back home.
The “women’s issue” was brought up in the House through leader of the Opposition Abdul Barui Siddiqui’s reference to deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi’s statement that men should get sterilised rather than women. Modi had made this remark pointing out that while over five lakh women had undergone family planning surgeries in the state, the male figure stood at 10,000.
Modi, however, said he stood by his stand and claimed that he himself had got sterilised. “I preach what I practise,” he said. On being asked by Siddiqui to show the certificate, Modi said he was ready to produce it in the House. “But the condition is that the leader of the Opposition must follow the example that I have set,” he added. Siddiqui said even without undergoing a sterilisation surgery, he had a son and a daughter. “We are ready to pay the leader of the Opposition Rs 1,105 if he undergoes the sterilisation surgery,” Choubey said, albeit on a lighter vain.
The House also passed the budgets of planning and IT departments. IT minister Shahid Ali Khan pledged “paperless offices” by 2016.
During Question Hour, minister-in-charge Vijay Choudhary conceded that there were 25 “tainted IPS officers” but refused to divulge their names, stressing that it would not be proper to reveal their names when investigation was on.
