Will make health services accessible, affordable: Brahm Mohindra

 Punjab health minister Brahm Mohindra flagged off a statewide pulse polio drive from his constituency here on Sunday.

Speaking to the media here at Tripari’s Community Health Centre, he said, “The three-day campaign will cover more than 36 lakh children, through 15,000 booths across state and 60,000 workers. In Ludhiana, the drive will continue for the next five days due to the presence of a heavy population of immigrants from different states.”

He said that India has not recorded any polio case since long, even as over 37 cases being detected worldwide, of which 24 are from Pakistan and 13 from Afghanistan.

He said that the state government has already started taking precautionary measures for chikungunya and dengue as well.

“A state-level meeting, of at least 11 departments, has been called on April 7 for the implementation of all precautionary measures, including fogging and other activities,” he said.

Brahm added that his priority is to overhaul the health department by filling the pending vacancies of doctors and paramedical staff so that the services get better in the rural and urban health centres run by the state government.

“We have issued special instructions to Rajindra Government Hospital for the betterment of public services. Construction of a multi-storey building will soon begin to make super-specialty treatment available in the institute,” he said.

He added that the previous government had completely ignored health services, having large-scale pendency of specialists in government hospitals.

“The mandate of Congress government is to bring reforms in the health sector, to make it affordable and accessible to people. I am doing my best to increase the health sector’s budget to improve the existing infrastructure in government institutions,” said Brahm.

Action against Gian Sagar soon

He said that the indefinite suspension of classes in Banaur’s Gian Sagar College is a matter of concern for the government.

The management was summoned for the meeting but they did not turn up.

“We are taking a legal opinion in this matter, before taking a final decision,” he added.