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PM Modi lays foundation for Koderma, Chaibasa medical colleges
The Ayushman Bharat- PM Jan Arogya Yojna has been billed as the world’s largest public health insurance scheme and was launched by PM Modi from Ranchi on September 23, 2018.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid foundation for medical colleges in Koderma and Chaibasa, besides inaugurating 10 health and wellness centres as part of mega Ayushman Bharat—Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojna (AB-PMJAY) launch from Ranchi on Sunday.
Addressing the gathering at the launch of the AB-PMJAY - billed as the world’s largest public health insurance scheme - at Prabhat Tara ground, the Prime Minister said, “Around 600 crore would be spent on construction of the medical colleges in the Chaibasa and Koderma. The government is working towards improving the health infrastructure, especially in the Tier-II cities. In the past four years, the government has started projects to establish 21 AIIMS and 82 other medical colleges across the country.”
Taking a swipe at the opposition, the Prime Minister said Jharkhand had three medical colleges in 67 years with mere 350 seats while over the past four years, since his government came to power, the state has got five more medical colleges and the medical seats have increased to 1200.
As per the health department officials, both medical colleges and their hospitals are expected to be ready by 2020. Three new medical colleges in Daltonganj, Dumka and Hazaribag are under construction and are likely to become operational from next academic session.
Stating that expenditure in the education and health sector were investments, Modi said the government plans to take the total number of medical seats in the country to over 1 lakh in the next 4-5 years from the existing seats of around 25,000.
Besides laying online foundation of the medical colleges, the PM also inaugurated 10 health and wellness centres in three districts of the state—Ranchi, Jamsedhpur and Bokaro as part of the Ayushman Bharat scheme.
“Work is under progress for 40 more wellness centres in the state. Over the next four years, there is plan to open 1.5 lakh wellness centres across the country,” Modi said.
Before launching the Ayushman Bharat scheme, the Prime Minister saw an exhibition at the venue about the scheme. At the exhibition, CEO of Ayushman Bharat Indu Bhushan explained to the Prime Minister the different features of the scheme.
“In the exhibition, an Aarogya Mitra also demonstrated to the Prime Minister how cards would be issued to a beneficiary after verification within minutes,” an official said.
Earlier, while on way to the venue from the helipad, the Prime Minister stopped midway and met the waiting sahiyas. “He spoke to them enquired about their functioning,” an official said.
