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Past govts went slow on health infra: Modi
The Prime Minister inaugurated various development projects worth more than ₹5,200 crore for his constituency, Varanasi
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday accused the previous governments of dragging their feet on the issue of health care as he launched a ₹64,000-crore national medical infrastructure mission and nine new medical colleges during his visit to Varanasi and Siddharthnagar in Uttar Pradesh.
The Prime Minister inaugurated various development projects worth more than ₹5,200 crore for his constituency, Varanasi.
“All this work should have been done decades ago,” Modi said at a public rally in his Lok Sabha constituency, where he inaugurated the Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission meant to plug gaps in the health care system.
Modi said the mission will also prepare the country to fight future pandemics.
Earlier in the day, he inaugurated nine medical colleges virtually from Siddharthnagar. Built at a cost of ₹2,329 crore, these are in Siddharthnagar, Etah, Hardoi, Pratapgarh, Fatehpur, Deoria, Ghazipur, Mirzapur and Jaunpur districts.
These nine medical colleges with 2,500 beds will serve people in the Purvanchal region and will create job opportunities for more than 5,000 doctors/paramedics, PM Modi said.
“Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission has been launched to give strength to the health infrastructure of the country so that there are high-level preparations to prevent and deal with epidemics. This also aims at bringing self-confidence and self-reliance in our health system,” said Modi, adding that projects worth around ₹75,000 crore were launched in UP on Monday.
Announced as the Prime Minister Atmanirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojana in the financial year 21-22 budget speech on February 1, with an outlay of about ₹64,180 crore over six years, the scheme was renamed during the launch. It is the second central health scheme that has been renamed this year after the National Digital Health Mission that was launched on September 27 as Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission. PM Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission will be in addition to the National Health Mission.
The PM said good health was considered the basis of every action and investment to make the body healthy was considered good.
“No other place could be better than Kashi for launching the mission as it is the abode of Lord Shiva and Shakti,” he said.
“After Independence, for a long period, health facilities, infrastructure were not given much attention. The previous governments deprived the country’s healthcare system of facilities for a long time,” alleged Modi.
“Corruption in medicines, ambulances, appointments, transfers and postings. In this entire game, some dynasts in UP flourished,” he said. “The cycle of corruption ran 24 hours but the ordinary families in Purvanchal and UP got crushed.”
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav later said that the BJP government was inaugurating new projects as it sensed defeat in the upcoming state elections. Uttar Pradesh will go polls next year.
The PM said villages lacked hospitals while hospitals at block level lacked testing facilities and district hospitals didn’t have facilities for treatment of serious diseases. “In big hospitals, there were long queues and patients had to wait for long. There were shortcomings in the healthcare system,” he added.
“To remove these shortcomings, the Ayushman Bharat Heath Infrastructure Mission has been launched. Under this mission, health and wellness centres are being opened in villages and cities. These will provide facilities for the early detection of diseases. Free medical consultation, free tests, and medicines will be available at these centres,” said Modi.
The objective was to fill gaps in the public health infrastructure, especially in critical care facilities and primary care in both urban and rural areas. The mission will provide support for 17,788 rural health and wellness centres in 10 high focus states. Further, 11,024 urban health and wellness centres will be established in all the states.
Through this, critical care services will be available in all the districts of the country with more than 500,000 population through exclusive critical care hospital blocks, while the remaining districts will be covered through referral services.
“Today, our government understands the pain of the exploited, deprived and backward lot. Earlier, public money used to go into scams, but today it is being used for big projects,” said the PM, adding, “The speed with which new medical colleges are being opened in UP will have a great impact on the number of medical seats and doctors. Due to more seats, children of poor parents will also be able to dream of becoming doctors and fulfil it.”
Modi said the condition of Kashi would have been different had the previous governments paid attention to its development. “The work done in Varanasi in the last seven years was not done in several decades,” he said.
“At present, all-around development is taking place in Varanasi. From technology to health, all facilities are being created in BHU (Banaras Hindu University). Young friends from all over the country are coming here for studies,” added the PM.
Modi said the country has achieved a major milestone of 1 billion vaccine doses in its fight against the coronavirus epidemic. “With the blessings of Baba Vishwanath, with the unwavering glory of Maa Ganga and with the unshakeable confidence of the people of Kashi, the free vaccination for all campaign is moving forward successfully,” he said.
Modi took potshots at the previous government in Uttar Pradesh for “ignoring basic medical needs of the people of the Purvanchal region while filling coffers of their families”, and asserted that the region, which became infamous for deaths due to encephalitis, would now emerge as a medical hub under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rule.
Modi attacked the previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the Centre and the Samajwadi Party government in UP, alleging that both neglected eastern UP (Purvanchal region).
“Mere announcements of the establishment of dispensaries were made. For years, the buildings were not constructed, and if the buildings were constructed, the equipment was not installed. There was a crisis of doctors and paramedical staff,” he said.
In an apparent attack on the erstwhile SP government, Modi said: “Their cycle of corruption ran 24 hours. There was corruption in medicine and ambulance procurement as well as in appointments. They had the priority of earning for themselves and filling the coffers of their families while for us the priority is to extend basic facilities to the poor.”
