Panaji: Patients who poured in at a government health facility
in North Goa the other-day was surprised to see the chief minister himself examining
the sick and administering treatment.
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, himself a Bachelor of Ayurveda
Medicine and Surgery (BAMS), chose to celebrate his 47th birthday on
Friday by revisiting the old days as an ayurvedic practitioner. He returned to
the Asilo Hospital in Mapusa where he had practised till 2008 before taking the
plunge into politics.
“Serving the people has always been my passion and source of
immense satisfaction. On my birthday today, I volunteered to join the team of
doctors at OPD of the District hospital Mapusa,” Sawant said in a social media
post.
Officials said the chief minister spent half a day at the
hospital, going for rounds and also examining patients. “I’m examining patients at this hospital for
the first time since 2008, when I was employed here,” he added.
Sawant, a Bachelor of Ayurveda, Medicine and Surgery from the
Ganga Education Society’s Ayurvedic Medical college in Kolhapur, Maharashtra,
said he volunteered to don the doctor’s coat again to show support to the
medical team fighting from the frontlines in the battle against Covid-19.
He welcomed the new ordinance making attacks on doctors an
offence punishable with a jail term of seven years. “Stringent laws enacted by
the Union Government against such (recent) attacks are the need of the hour… We
should support the corona warriors including medical and para-medical
fraternity to set an example for others to follow and fight against this
pandemic,” he said. Goa recently became the first Indian state to become
Covid-19 free.
Sawant was elected to the Goa Legislative Assembly in 2012.
He was sworn in as the 13 th chief minister of the state on March, 19, 2019.
