AES: Vardhan faces flak for repeating 2014 promises

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Tuesday faced sharp criticism for providing an identical set of assurances to AES-struck Bihar, which he gave in 2014 as the first health minister of Narendra Modi-led NDA-1 government.

In a press statement, Vardhan on Monday announced setting up a 100-bed paediatric ICU at Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital in Muzaffarpur and 10 bedded paediatric ICUs in the adjoining districts to tackle the AES cases.

These are exactly the same promises he made on June 24, 2014 – five years ago – after visiting Bihar in the wake of 139 AES deaths. The details are visible on the minister's Facebook page.

Vardhan also promised setting up specialised AES research centre even in 2014 – an assurance he repeated in 2019 as well. The only difference is that a 7-member team has been sent to Bihar to do the groundwork for establishing the research unit.

Even though hundreds of kids died in intervening five years, the Union Health Ministry did little to fulfil the ICU promises made by Vardhan, who was removed as union health minister after five months. Himachal Pradesh politician J P Nadda was chosen as Vardhan's replacement.

The Health Minister received criticism from Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala. “Same minister, same causes (of the disease) and same promises. No works on the ground but he is talking a lot,” the Congress leader said in his tweet in Hindi. He also tagged the minister's 2014 Facebook post in his tweet.

When asked to comment on the Bihar AES deaths, Vardhan said a super-speciality centre is under an advanced stage of construction and the centre was providing every support to the state government. He also chaired a review meeting on the AES deaths at the health ministry.