Minister moots corpus fund for kids with HIV/Aids, cancer

 Medical Education Minister S A Ramdas said on Tuesday that he was planning to table a proposal for setting up a corpus fund for treatment of children suffering from HIV/Aids and cancer, at the forthcoming session of the legislature in Belgaum.

Speaking to mediapersons during an inspection of the Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology, the minister said the hospital treated over 500 children with leukemia every year and struggled to mobilise funds to provide free treatment.

“Members of both the Houses can either donate to the corpus fund or adopt children undergoing treatment for the illnesses,” he said.

Later, speaking after inaugurating the Rajyotsava celebrations at the hospital, he said money from the corpus fund would also be used to identify and award doctors, technicians and group ‘D’ employees who have rendered best services in the hospital.
During the inspection, Ramdas found two staff members irregular at work.

Dr K C Lakshmaiah, head of medical oncology, was questioned on the number of patients he had treated on Monday. The minister had received complaints against the doctor. Ramdas also sought details of the bio-metric attendance of all staff members.

Lakshmaiah told Deccan Herald that he had attended to 92 cases on Monday and that the allegations against him were baseless.The minister found that Lokaraj, lab technician at the blood bank, had not punched the biometric attendance system and was busy in preparations for Rajyotsava.

Ramdas suspended Lokaraj for not attending to his work. Later, the lab technician threatened to expose the ‘misdeeds’ of the minister.

Misappropriation of funds

He told reporters that he had being filing many Right to Information applications about misappropriation of funds in the hospital, involving the hospital director and the minister. Lokaraj said they were trying to stop him from exposing them by suspending him.

Ramdas has set up a committee to look into the irregularities at the hospital.