Thiruvananthapuram | Kerala Health Minister K Muraleedharan on Sunday said that the medical system in the state was prepared to handle any rain-related problems and directions have been issued to send teams of health professionals to all relief camps to take care of people shifted there.
Speaking to reporters here, Muraleedharan also said that essential medicines have been stocked and health authorities in disaster-prone areas in the state have been advised to be vigilant.
He said that the Health Department was ready and keeping a close watch on the rain-related developments.
With regard to setting up an AIIMS in the state, the minister said that health officials recently visited Vaikom -- one of the sites proposed for the medical institution -- and other locations earmarked for it will also be inspected.
"It will be the Centre which finally decides at which location the AIIMS will be set up," he said.
On queries regarding Chief Minister V D Satheesan's recent helicopter travel and the criticism it has invited from the Left, Muraleedharan said that his father, K Karunakaran, was the one to travel the most by helicopter.
He said that a helicopter is used in times of urgency to reach a location much faster than by rail or road and therefore, there was nothing wrong with it.
"We have not criticised the use of helicopter by Pinarayi Vijayan," he added.
On being asked about a purported communication issued by the Home Department with regard to grant of leave to BJP coucillor R Sugathan, Muraleedharan said that Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala has issued directions to investigate the matter.
The communication was issued without the knowledge of the minister, he said.
Opposition leader Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday criticised the government's decision to grant six months' leave to jailed councillor Sugathan, terming the home department's circular on the issue "strange".
He alleged that the move was aimed at protecting the councillor and described it as part of a broader "deal" to safeguard the interests of the RSS and BJP.
