Union health minister C P Thakur on Tuesday called on Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and briefed him about the steps taken by his ministry in providing adequate medical facilities in Gujarat, which witnessed a communal frenzy recently. Thakur, who returned from Ahemdabad on Monday evening, told Vajpayee that nearly 200 people were still under treatment at various hospitals in the state while another 1000 people were at the relief camps, set up by the state government. During his meeting with the Prime Minister, Thakur also said that since the fear psychosis was looming large in the state, his ministry was planning to send a team of psychiatrists to the trouble-torn state to provide medical assistance to such patients. Stating that things had started coming to normal, Thakur, however, admitted that the actual normalcy could return in the state only after a month.

The union health minister also offered the services of the doctors sent by health ministry for instilling confidence among the residents as the medicos had built a rapo with the local residents over a period of time. Bureau Report