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Ludhiana: After 2 years, diet money for TB patients released

ByRakshit Sharma, Ludhiana
Jan 15, 2025 10:38 PM IST

TB patients are entitled to ₹1,000 every month as diet money to help them take nutritious diet while they undergo treatment. The diet amount was revised in November last year. Before that it was ₹500.

Strap: Of the pending amount of 4 crore, the health dept received the first instalment of 90 lakh

The TB centre at the civil hospital in Ludhiana. (Manish/Hindustan Times)
The TB centre at the civil hospital in Ludhiana. (Manish/Hindustan Times)

The pending diet money for tuberculosis patients since June 2022 have finally been released. The local health department recently received 90 lakh, the first tranche of the payment.

TB patients are entitled to 1,000 every month as diet money to help them take nutritious diet while they undergo treatment. The diet amount was revised in November last year. Before that it was 500.

The department was short of funds for this diet money since June 2022 as there was some issue at the Centre, health officials said.

“The diet money was pending since June 2022. There were some issues at the Centre. Almost 10 days ago we have received around 90 lakh for the diet money,” said district TB officer Dr Ashish Chawla.

However, the pendency amounts to 4 crore, Dr Chawla added.

“We are disbursing the diet money for the current patients and those from the last year right now,” he said.

So far, around 75 lakh have already been disbursed.

Dr Chawla said that they have been asked to disburse the first tranche and hoped the second tranche will be disbursed later this month.

At present around 6,000 patients have been registered with the department.

Besides diet money, the pending incentives worth 28 lakh for Asha workers have also been released.

An Asha worker gets an incentive worth 1,000 for registering a drug sensitive TB patient and 5,000 for registering a drug-resistant TB patient.

The funds for this incentive were pending since March last year, Dr Chawla added.

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