Kathmandu, December 20

Former health minister Deepak Bohara has demanded that distribution of monthly allowance of Rs 5,000 to the patients suffering from kidney failure, cancer and paralysis be continued immediately.

Releasing a press statement yesterday Rastriya Prajatantra Party leader condemned the government’s decision to cut off the allowance being provided to the patients.

Kidney patients have been organising protests on a regular basis demanding continuation of the allowance. Expressing solidarity with the kidney patients, Bohara said, “Kidney patients have been staging protests and all they need is the allowance.”

The government had started providing Rs 5,000 monthly livelihood allowance for patients suffering from kidney failure, cancer and paralysis from 26 January 2018. The then prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, inaugurating the programme, had handed cheques worth Rs 5,000 each to 27 patients receiving treatment at Bir Hospital and National Trauma Centre.

However, after the formation of the new government, it discontinued the programme. “Since then the kidney patients have been agitated. The current government is responsible for this situation,” said Bohara.

“I condemn the act of the government for overturning the Deuba-led government’s decision to provide allowance to the patients. Wasn’t the decision taken by the former Deuba government a relief for the patients?” asked Bohara.

“Any decision taken for the public interest should be implemented even when there is a change in the government,” he said.