West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari said on Saturday that the Center had imposed sanctions $2,103 crore to the state under the National Health Mission (NHM) for the current financial year.
“The center is being punished around $2,103 crore under NHM for this financial year. From this, around $“Rs 500 crore was transferred to the state on Saturday,” Adhikari said.
This comes within two weeks of the BJP coming to power in the state. The previous Trinamool Congress (TMC) government had repeatedly accused the Center of not releasing funds to the state government under various schemes.
“We have made a special request to Union Health Minister JP Nadda, to release the funds for the financial years 2023-24 and 2024-25. The previous government did not submit the utilization certificate for the year 2021-22. He assured that if the utilization certificate is sent, the Center will release the funds for the previous years. The state finance and health ministers will send the utilization certificates by May 30,” Adhikari said.
He added that the Center also agreed to its share of… $973 crore under Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana for the current financial year. While the Center shares 60% of the funding and premium costs for AB-PMJAY, the state shares 40%.
“We will get more funds under the 15th Finance Commission in the current financial year. Work is underway to achieve this,” Adhikari said.
Adhikari met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi on Friday. This was his first meeting with Modi after taking charge on May 9. On Saturday, he held a virtual meeting with Neda.
No TMC leaders were available for comment.
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Adhikari also said that Ayushman Bharat will be rolled out in West Bengal expectedly from July.
“Work on registration of Ayushman Bharat Yojana has already begun. We hope that over 60 million people, who were covered by the Swasthya Sathi scheme (launched by the TMC government) will start getting the benefits from July. We have also decided to sign the Ayushman Arogya Mandir agreement in Delhi in June,” he said.
He also said that a proposal has been sent to the Center to set up at least 469 PM Janushadi Kendras at block, sub-division and district levels across the state.
He pointed out that the under-five mortality rate in some districts including Kolkata, Murshidabad, East Burdwan, Birbhum, Malda and others was high and the state was also lagging behind in the National Leprosy Eradication Programme. There are at least seven districts showing high leprosy burdens – Bankura, Birbhum, Jhargram, Kolkata, West Burdwan, Purulia and North Dinajpur. The state government will focus on these areas.
“In the health sector, only 53% of the permitted positions of doctors, nurses and other staff have been filled, which is lower than the national average of 98%,” he said.
The Chief Minister said that medical colleges will be established in every district across the state. Four regions did not yet have medical colleges. A proposal will be sent to the Center along with a separate proposal to set up All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in North Bengal.
