The National Parliament on Wednesday (June 30) witnessed uproar over the speech made by the Health Minister Zahid Maleque regarding various irregularities, mismanagement and recruitment issues in the health sector.

Responding to words of opposition members, the Minister said, “The allegations in general are not acceptable. You also have to take responsibility.”

While passing the budget on Wednesday, a discussion over demands for grants of three ministries and directorates – the law ministry, the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education and the Directorate General of Health Services – were held in the parliament.

Members of the Jatiya Party, the BNP and the Gonoforum proposed retrenchment.

Jatiya Party’s Pir Fazlur Rahman said, “How many times shall I forward DO [demi official] letters? The hospital in my area has no ambulance, when will I get doctors, X-ray machines, radiologists?

He further said, “Every time I tell the Health Minister, he asks me to give a DO letter. How many times should I do that?”

Regarding the ministry’s allocation demand, Pir Fazlur Rahman said, “You asked for allocation again, but you could not spend the money from the ongoing allocation.”

Another member of the opposition party, Shameem Haider Patwary said, “The health ministry has been unable to spend the money. They returned it. That’s not what we want. If you can’t spend it, distribute it among 350 MPs. Let’s spend it.”

“We will watch over health services. You are not needed. Hand over the responsibility to the MPs if you are not able to appoint doctors and nurses. Let’s take care of appointments,” he said.

BNP’s MP Harunur Rashid said, “The health sector is going through a crisis. To get rid of corruption… you have to uproot it. There are huge irregularities with purchases in the health sector. There’s nothing new to say about corruption.”

In response, Zahid Maleque said, “All MPs are chairpersons of hospitals. We are involved with the development committees. You all have responsibilities. You are supposed to look into these matters. Your machine doesn’t run, you need people – these are matters you need to resolve yourself.”

“But you don’t do that. If you need nurses, doctors or machinery then you need to ask for it. Just complaining over it won’t solve anything,” he said.