In yet another surprise, Bihar government on July 27 shifted newly appointed health secretary Uday Singh Kumawat and replaced him with Pratyaya Amrit who is at present also looking after Disaster Management Department. Amrit is considered close to Chief Minister Nistish Kumar and has surprisingly given additional charge when Bihar is facing severe flood.
Uday Singh Kumawat’s removal came just a day after the Bihar chapter of Indian Medical Association wrote a letter to CM alleging that the health secretary is indifferent towards doctors. Incidentally, Kumawat was installed as health secretary of Bihar on May 20. He succeeded Sanjay Kumar the previous health secretary who, according to reports, had serious differences with Health minister Manual Panday and other BJP leaders.
Interestingly, Sanjay too was considered blue eyed boy of Nitish but sources said that former was removed as he had started emerging as the face of the campaign against COVID 19. He used to frequently update the information on twitter. This was not liked by the political executive of the state, it is said.
On the other hand, Kumawat relationship with the health minister as well as officials of the health department was not very cordial. The transfer came few days after Health Minister Mangal Pandey in a cabinet meeting complained to the Chief Minister that the secretary is not listening to his instructions.
It needs to be mentioned that only last week a central team visited Bihar to take the stock of situation emerging after the spurt in the corona virus cases. Reportedly the Central team was not satisfied with the ways Bihar government is tackling the corona virus crisis.
A couple of days after the Centre’s team visited Nalanda Medical College and Hospital, the first COVID 19 dedicated hospital of Bihar, its superintendent Nirmal Kumar Sinha was removed from the post.
Independent Bihar’s watchers are shocked over the way Nitish Kumar has given the double responsibility of health and disaster management to one officer when the state is facing the grim challenge on both fronts. On the condition of anonymity one of them commented: where have all the committed and honest officers gone.
— TheNewsweb Special Correspondent
