Elected reps fail to turn up at advocacy meet

BANGALORE:  Only two out of 35 elected representatives of the city turned up at an advocacy meeting specially organised for them.The MPs, MLAs and MLCs were invited for a an advocacy meeting to discuss the issues of UN Millennium Development Goal (MDGs), an initiative to improve maternal health and universal access to reproductive health, organised by the Family Planning Association of India (FPA). Only 15 confirmed their presence for the meeting and finally just two showed up for the event.“Had it been a any other function of ribbon cutting ceremony or inauguration, the attendance would have been more or if it had been   scheduled post lunch, some of them would have arrived late and attended the meeting”, said one of the participants in the meeting.“This meeting is the best platform for all elected members to discuss significant issues. Most elected representatives prefer to abstain from meetings where they have to speak on women and child related issues.”, added another participant.On being asked as to what could be the reason, N L Narendra Babu, MLA, Mahalakshmi Layout, who was one among the two representatives, said that some of them were busy in the meeting of MLA and ex-MLAs’ cooperative society. “To achieve these millennium Development Goals, political will is a must”, Narendra Babu added.Former prime minister H D Deve Gowda who was to be a chief guest on the occasion could not attend the meeting as he was not well.Roshan Baig, MLA of Shivajinagar spoke on the casual attitude of bureaucracy. “The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike’s maternity home and primary health centres are flop shows. Even the legistature and elective representatives have failed in their duties”, he observed.Emphasising on the need to promote generic drugs, he said that he has  proposed to set up generic drug pharmacy at the Bowring and Lady Curzon and Victoria Hospital.  He also said that frequent transfers in the health department hampers the effective implementation of the various programme.Former Kannada and Culture minister  Rani Sathish highlighted the importance of incentives to promote sanitation and need for access to relevant, adequate and correct information on sexual and reproductive heath services.The members of the Family Planning Association present in the meeting highlighted the need for strengthening the health care facilities in other districts which are deprived of basic infrastructure and to impart sexual education to the school children.