U’khand govt plans health drive in hills, Oppn calls it a poll move

With just a few months to go for the assembly elections, the Uttarakhand government has decided to hold a special drive aimed at extending healthcare services to people in remote parts of the state.

With just a few months to go for the assembly elections, the Uttarakhand government has decided to hold a special drive aimed at extending healthcare services to people in remote parts of the state.

The health department recently decided to send the doctors to serve in remote areas on a rotational basis. (HT photo for representation)

The initiative failed to impress the opposition, which accused the Harish Rawat regime of trying to score brownie points with voters ahead of the polls.

Government sources said the drive will have mobile vans equipped with doctors and medicines travelling to the more mountainous regions of Uttarakhand, providing succour to people who otherwise have little access to health facilities.

“We have identified 55 of the state’s 95 development blocks where health services are needed. We plan to launch the initiative by dispatching two mobile teams each in the Garhwal and Kumaon regions,” health minister Surendra Singh Negi told HT.

Each team will have a physician, a gynaecologist, a child specialist and a pathologist who will provide outpatient department services in remote areas, and give away medicines to local residents. “As per initial estimates, we will end up spending Rs 10 lakh per month on each of the teams,” he said.

The health department had recently decided to send the doctors to serve in remote areas on a rotational basis, a move that is likely to be implemented after the monsoon.

Successive governments over the years have failed to deploy doctors to hill areas of the state, resulting in poor healthcare services at primary and community health centres. According to the health department, Uttarakhand currently faces a shortage of over 52% doctors and 73% specialists.

Opposition parties, however, have blamed the Congress-led government of trying to gain political mileage in the run-up to the elections. Virendra Singh Bisht, state spokesperson of the Bharatiya Janata Party denounced the government’s move as “nautanki” (drama) aimed at “misleading the public”. “The Congress government failed to improve health services in Uttarakhand over the last four years, and it has decided to wake up only now. We (the BJP) are all for development, but a step like this won’t make much of a difference,” said Bisht.

Even the public has “become aware of the government’s false promises,” he added.