Cattle markets near hospitals annoy Nasim
Health Minister Mohammed Nasim has demanded removal of the Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) administrator for having allowed traders to set up cattle markets adjacent to the hospitals in the capital's Agargaon despite repeated requests from the health ministry.
“He is a criminal. What interests did he have in doing so? Such a person cannot be in the administration…I request the LGRD ministry to take action against the administrator,” the minister said.
Like previous years, the DNCC leased out an open space beside the National Institute of Ophthalmology and Hospital to a bidder for setting up cattle markets ahead of the Eid-ul-Azha.
The National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopaedic Rehabilitation (NITOR), Dhaka Shishu Hospital and National Institute of Neurosciences and Hospital were also just a few yards from the market.
As a huge number of cattle are put on sale in this market every year, blocking roads that make it difficult for patients to reach the hospitals, the health minister in a letter written on August 3 had requested the LGRD Minister Syed Ashraful Islam to ensure that the designated space was not leased out this year for cattle markets.
The health ministry's hospital wing and the Directorate General of Health and Services also wrote separate letters to the DNCC, Nasim said.
As traders started brining cattle to the market towards late September, the health ministry on September 29 sought intervention of the home ministry to thwart the traders.
All our pleas went unheeded, the minister said.
“Patients suffered a lot due to the cattle market. Many ambulances could not even reach the hospitals,” Nasim regretted, pledging to do everything to stop such malpractices.
Replying to a query about any political pressure behind the DNCC's leasing of the open space as a Jubo League leader [Salauddin Jahid] won the lease, Nasim said the responsibility basically lies with the one who approved it.
As a reporter inquired whether different ministries and government departments had a serious lack of coordination which failed to stop the traders, the minister answered in the negative.
“There was an inter-ministerial decision on the matter. The major issue is if the DNCC considered our request. The leasing of the space [in Sher-e-Bangla Nagar] is illegal,” Nasim said.
Nowhere in the world there are shops or cattle markets that pollute a hospital's environment in addition to spreading diseases, he added.
Contacted, DNCC Administrator MD Faruque Jalil denied receiving any letter from the health ministry.
“Besides, cattle market at this venue is nothing new. We cannot stop it suddenly as the process starts well ahead of the Eid-ul-Azha,” he said.
LGRD and Cooperatives Minister Syed Ashraful Islam could not be contacted for his comments as his mobile phone was switched off.
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