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Patna,(BiharTimes): Bihar has been spending just 60-65 per cent of the fund meant for the centrally-sponsored National Rural Health Mission. However, this year efforts are being made to spend 80-85 per cent of the amount. The state government has so far spent Rs 600 crore out of Rs 1058 it got in the 2011-12 fiscal. In the next two months it hopes to spend at least Rs 250-300 crore more. |
According to principal health secretary Amarjeet Sinha in 2010-2011, the expenditure against the funds release was 67 per cent.
He said that since 2005-2006 when the National Rural Health Mission was launched in the country, Bihar’s total expenditure has been hovering around 60-65 per cent every year. He attributed this to the lack of trained manpower, machinery and resources required to implement various programmes.
According to him to overcome shortage of medical teachers in the state, the department has prepared a list of 140 retired professors from other states. They will be appointed on contract.
He said a case is pending in Patna High Court over the issue of appointment and the state government is waiting for that to be cleared.
Sinha said that by April this year, building plans of the medical college at Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences and that of the proposed medical colleges at Bettiah, Madhepura and Pawapuri would be approved.
The health secretary said that as Gaya and Muzaffarpur districts reported over 120 deaths because of acute encephalitis last year, an integrated plan to curb the outbreak of the disease has been prepared. Nutritional centres would be opened at villages from where most of the cases were reported. The state government has also requested Indian Council of Medical Research and department of health research, Union government, to open a long-term research centre in Gaya to study the cause and ways of prevention of the fatal disease.
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