Face-off between Congress MLA Satish Sail-Minister Mankal S Vaidya during KDP meeting in Karwar

Karwar (Uttara Kannada district): A face-off was witnessed between a Congress MLA and his own party minister during the Karnataka Development Programme meeting held at Zilla Panchayat Auditorium in the city on Monday.

MLA Satish Sail was miffed at District Incharge Minister Mankal S Vaidya for not allowing a discussion on shortage of drugs and medicines in government hospitals and staged a walk out.

Intervening during a discussion on health department, Sail claimed that there was shortage of medicines in the government hospitals. However, Vaidya claimed that there was no shortage of medicines in the hospitals in the district.

Angered by the response, Sail claimed that people were complaining to him about shortage of medicines as well as doctors in the government hospitals. The MLA said that instead of solving the problems, the minister shouldn’t defend by saying that there was no problem. “I am not an illiterate,” Sail said.

“Irrespective of the party in power , it is our responsibility to solve people’s problem. Due to the minister’s non-response, I walked out of the meeting,” Sail said.

“There is scope for solving the problems related to shortage of services in government hospitals by obtaining information in the meeting of Arogya Raksha Samiti, headed by the MLA. There is no difference of opinion between MLA and me,” Vaidya said.