Zafrullah urges PM to hold fair polls, visit Khaleda on Eid day

Gonoshasthaya Kendra trustee Zafrullah Chowdhury on Monday urged prime minister Sheikh Hasina to hold the next general election in a fair way and to visit ailing Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Khaleda Zia at her house on Eid day.

In an open letter to the prime minister that was submitted to the prime minister’s office in the capital, veteran freedom fighter Zafrullah urged the PM to advance forward with his old colleagues and all politicians.

‘You have to advance forward with all your old colleagues and all other politicians. They will have to ensure that the next election will be fair and clean in a bid to ensure good governance. The election should not be a cunning one, the day time election should not be held at night. May be success is waiting for you,’ Zafrullah, also a key leader of opposition election platform Jatiya Oikya Front, said.

‘Please arrange your time to visit Khaleda Zia to wish her good health. The country’s people will be happy with this and Bangabandhu would smile at you and say “well done, my child!”,’ he said.

The veteran physician in his letter titled ‘a citizen’s open letter to the loving prime minister’ said that he wrote the letter being failed to meet the PM despite efforts and expected a letter of accepting the letter.

Mentioning that the approval of the prime minister or the health ministry or the health directorate is not needed to get a patient admitted to anywhere in the world, he said, ‘in Bangladesh, health directorate takes decision whether a COVID-19 patient would be admitted to a hospital. The patient himself or the doctors cannot take the decision.  No such instance of centralisation exists elsewhere in the world. It’s an awesome decision! Well-done, centralisation eases corruption.’ 

He said that most of the non-government hospitals in the country, including his Gonoshasthaya Nagar Hospital and Gonoshasthaya Dialysis Centre, had health directorate’s approval as it was almost impossible to fulfil the condition imposed by the government to register hospitals, disease identification centre and laboratories.

He said that the licence fees for registering a hospital was increased 40 times in 2018 while dental department registration fees increased 30 times and the registration fees for laboratories, disease identification departments and Blood Transfusion Centres had increased 50 times that year.

Mentioning that a hospital and its different departments need separate approvals, Zafrulla alleged that separate approval means separate expenditure for advocacy and bargaining.

‘Please notice that the increase in government extortion. Harassment and corruption go together,’ he said and mentioned that the country, having around 2,000 Blood Transfusion Centres, does not have more than 80 doctors with a two-year diploma degree on blood transfusion, which is a prerequisite for getting approval for such a centre.

Zafrullah said that Dhanmondi’s Gonoshasthaya Kendra would open centrally air conditioned Intensive Care Unit and COVID-19 general ward, with central oxygen supply, in August.

He also wanted to know whether the prime minister would inaugurate the facilities.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net