Thiruvananthapuram, July 5 (IANS) The youth wing of the CPI-M — the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) — on Saturday warned the opposition protesters that they will not sit idle if State Health Minister Veena George is targeted. The DYFI said it will go to any extent to protect George as there is no reason to target her over the recent building collapse in which a woman was killed.

For the second day in succession, the Congress-led UDF and the BJP workers have been on a rampage and clashed with the police across the state demanding the resignation of George.

Fifty-six-year-old Bindu was killed after a toilet block of the Kottayam Medical College hospital came down on Thursday.

There has been a massive public ire against Kerala Cooperation Minister V.N. Vasavan and George, who after reaching the place, said that just two people suffered minor injuries and no one was buried beneath the debris.

On Saturday, he wondered: “Did the Health Minister pull down the building? When an aircraft crashes, should the Prime Minister resign? Did anyone resign in Karnataka when people died in a stampede?”

Following these remarks, he also had to face the ire of the protesters at Angamali. He was shown black flags by irate Congress workers when he arrived for an official function.

Former Kerala unit BJP president K. Surendran said the state’s health department has become a curse, while inaugurating a protest march of his party workers at the Kozhikode Medical College hospital.

“It’s all round chaos in the health sector with a serious shortage of medicines… surgeries are getting delayed, wrong medicines are given to patients and when the situation is going from bad to worse, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has left to the US for his medical treatment. Vijayan himself said now even the rich seek treatment from the government hospitals here, then why is he going to the US,” Surendran questioned.

Veteran Congress legislator Ramesh Chennithala said George is an incapable Minister.

“Due to her inability to deal with issues, the health sector in Kerala is in tantrums. Vijayan before leaving to the US should have got the resignation letter from George. The time is not far when just like the building collapsed at Kottayam, the Vijayan government is all set to collapse,” said Chennithala.

–IANS

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