The Union home minister Amit Shah has said that the Narendra Modi government is working steadily for improving the health services of the country. He said that the government is planning to open at least one All Indian Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) in every state of the country and 22 new AIIMS would come up in future. He was addressing the second convocation ceremony of the AIIMS, Rishikesh on Saturday.
He said that the union government is working in the direction of setting up one medical college within three parliamentary constituencies and this task would be completed by the year 2024.
Terming AIIMS Rishikesh as a gift of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to Uttarakhand, the union home minister said that Vajpayee started a journey by opening six AIIMS in different parts of the country and PM Narendra Modi has given 22 new AIIMS. He said that 157 new medical colleges would be opened in the country. Shah said that the Atal Ayushman Yojana is the biggest scheme of the government to provide best health care facility to everyone. A total of 60 Crore people are covered under the scheme which provides a free health cover of Rs 5 lakh in a year and health cards of 12.38 Crore families have been made. He said that the poor are being given benefit of Pradhan Mantri Jan Aushadhi Kendra. Shah added that PM Modi has promoted Yoga under 'Fit India' campaign. Exhorting the students to serve people, he said that after getting the knowledge of medicine from the institute, 60 Crore poor people are waiting to be served.
On the occasion, certificates of completion of studies were presented to 252 students of 2013 and 2014 batch of the institute. Letters of appreciation were given to 134 students.
Speaking on the occasion, chief minister of Uttarakhand Trivendra Singh Rawat said that his government has taken a target of 90 percent institutional deliveries in the state and is providing health services in remote areas by means of Tele-medicine and Tele-radiology. He added that ICU facility is now available in eight out of 13 districts of the state.
The union Human Resource Development (HRD) minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank and union health minister, Dr Harshvardhan also spoke on the occasion.
Uttarakhand ministers, Madan Kaushik, Harak Singh Rawat, Subodh Uniyal, Dhan Singh Rawat, chief secretary Utpal Kumar Singh and Director of AIIMS Rishikesh, Ravikant were also present in the ceremony.