Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), Dr Jitendra reviewed the state of Aspirational Districts in terms of their COVID preparedness and healthcare facilities with special focus to the North-Eastern states. He also announced that the Ministry for North East has allocated a package of Rs. 190 crore for healthcare facilities in the eight Northeastern states. These funds will be utilised for the development of infrastructure.
The virtual meeting was attended by Health Secretaries of the states along with Health officials of the 14 aspirational districts. The minister said that healthcare is an important indicator of development in the 49 indicators for an aspirational district. He further said that a scientific methodology would be applied to raise these key indicators in the districts.
A special allocation of Rs. 500 crore was also announced for the states to create an infrastructure to prepare for such diseases in the future. The fund will be provided through the North East Special Infrastructure Development Scheme (NEISDS) under the Ministry of DoNER. Except for Tripura, all the other seven states have submitted proposals for health infrastructure. The minister said that Rs.25 crore was already provided to the states in the early stage of the pandemic and the rest will be provided soon.
The minister congratulated Goalpara and Dhubri districts for the implementation of Ayushman Bharat at 100% and 85% respectively. He said that the Goalpara District within six months has managed to climb 52 places from 68 to 16 in the list of 150 aspirational districts.
He also said that several issues like the inadequacies in the list of beneficiaries under Ayushman Bharat and the cost of getting a golden card under the scheme will also be reviewed so that all the people under the scheme are benefitted.
