In nine months, Punjab Government has claimed of injecting a financial aid of about `40 crore to help more than 3,500 cancer patients amidst allegations of misutilisation of funds under the Chief Minister’s Cancer Relief Fund.
In a State where, on an average, a person dies of cancer every one-and-a-half hour, the SAD-BJP Government has helped as many as 9,784 patients by spending a total of `105.22 crore (`105,22,51,105) as a relief for them.
During the previous year, the State Government has granted `64.93 crore (`64,93,85,163) under the Mukh Mantri Punjab Cancer Raahat Kosh Scheme.
Even as the Government claimed of clearing all the requests it received this year till September 18, there have been allegations that the money sanctioned for the patients either did not reach them or was being misutilised.
A study conducted recently on the same revealed that the Fund was being misutilised with a good chunk of money going to hospitals, which were not even empanelled by the government or to those which were ill-equipped. However, the State Government maintained that it has provided assistance to all those who applied for the same under the scheme.
As per the data available with the health department, the maximum of `4.57 crore has been spent on 345 cases in Jalandhar district, followed by that of Amritsar with `4.19 crore for 386 cancer patients, and ludhiana with `3.66 crore for 373 cases under the Chief Minister Cancer Relief Fund.
Bathinda, known as the cancer capital of Punjab, comes close with 234 cases, ranking seventh in availing relief under the scheme, by getting the financial assistance of `2.14 crore.
Under the fund, set up in June 2011, cancer patients are entitled to seek financial help of `1.50 lakh for treatment of the disease. Earlier a cumbersome procedure, the state government had later simplified the procedure for the patients to avail the benefit of the scheme in a hassle free manner.
Earlier, all the requests for aid were to be thoroughly scrutinised by a committee consisting of the Chief Minister, Health Minister and Principal Secretary (Health). In case of emergency, the fund would be directly disbursed after obtaining the sanction from the Chief Minister.
“Now, the patients can get the relief amount if the hospital concerned or the deputy commissioner, or the Chief Medical Officer of the district writes to the government,” said Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.
He added, “The cancer treatment involves high expenditure cost and that is why the government has come up with this cancer relief fund. Moreover, the majority of my welfare funds are too contributed to the cancer works.”
At present, 17 hospitals have been empanelled to treat the cancer patients under the scheme, including Chandigarh’s hospitals - the PGIMER, GMCH-32, and, GH-16.
Badal has already asked the state health authorities to chalk out the modalities with the empanelled hospitals to provide the cancer treatment medicines at subsidised rates.
Maintaining that the state government is chalking out a comprehensive action plan to combat cancer, Badal claimed that, in the coming year, the state would strengthen its infrastructure to the highest specialised level so that people from other parts of world would come here for treatment.
In one of the first kind of cancer door-to-door survey carried out by the state health department ever, altogether 2.64 crore (2,64,84,434) people in 50.53 lakh (50,53,447) households were covered in 12,603 villages and 217 cities and towns covering 97.78 per cent coverage of the entire population.
The survey revealed that a total of 33,318 cancer deaths have been reported from the state in five years (from 2008-2012), with highest in ludhiana district (3945) followed by Jalandhar (3249), and Amritsar (2755).
Nothing lees than 23,874 persons were found afflicted with cancer across Punjab, and 84,453 more are showing symptoms, with the cancer incidence rate of 90 persons per one lakh population against the national figure of 80 persons.
Among the districts, the cancer incidence is highest in Muktsar (136.3 persons per one lakh population), followed by Mansa (134.8 persons per one lakh population) and Bathinda (125.8 persons per one lakh population).
Even as the State’s Malwa region earned the name of “cancer belt” with the highest average of 107.1 cancer patients per one lakh population, Doaba is not far behind and has been diagnosed as the ‘cancer prone area’. Doaba region, including the districts of Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala, and Nawanshahr, has confirmed 88.1 cancer patients per lakh of population. Majha has shown the lowest numbers of cases at 64.7 cases per lakh.
Alarmed with the rate of cancer and finding that cancer patients at advance stages are approaching hospitals, the state health department has announced the two-day cancer screening and early detection camps on September 28 and 29 across the State.
unIJ wiIJIJpIJool Room Technology Development Centres would be set up at Saha in district Ambala and Rohtak at a total cost of `250 crore. Expressing gratitude, Rohtak MP Deepender Singh Hooda said that with this, thousands of youth would get technical education, and it would also boost industrial development in the State. Trades like BTech, MTech and diploma courses in engineering would be conducted at these centres.
RG International U-17 Cricket Championship
Chandigarh: Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, speaking after unveiling the trophy of second Rajiv Gandhi International under-17 Cricket Championship on Thursday, said that India is shaping itself as a nation of 21st century as dreamt by former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. The championship is being organized by Cricket Federation of India at Cricket Stadium, Sector-3, Panchkula from October 2 to 6. Congratulating the Federation, Hooda said that besides education, sports are also essential for overall development of children.
Dal chana, masoor distributed
Chandigarh: Haryana Government has allocated 2870 metric tonnes (MT) of Dal Chana and an equal quantity of Dal Masoor Sabut to all districts in the State for their distribution under the recently launched Dal Roti scheme. Official spokesman of Food and Supplies Department said that the State Government would pay an annual subsidy of `162 crore on distribution of subsidized pulses. Haryana Government has decided to distribute subsidized pulses to Antodaya Anna Yojna (AAY), Central Below Poverty line (CBPl) and State Below Poverty line (SBPl) families under Dal Roti scheme.