A unique initiative to provide best possible medicare to the poorest of the poor in a district in Bihar is drawing huge response from all section of the society. Under the plan, each household of the district has been asked to pay Rs10 for any emergency medical service to any of the family members.
The initiative is the brainchild of the District Magistrate of Kaimur, Arvind Kumar Singh. With the huge positive response of the people of the district, Singh is overwhelmed and encouraged to effectively launch it soon.“The decision to initiate the programme was mooted when we saw a large number of people, especially poor people were dying in the district due to lack of immediate medical facility and medicare,” said the Kaimur District Magistrate.
There are about 4 lakh households in the district who have been urged to donate Rs10 each to avail the facility in case of any medical emergency.“Our target is to approach each household to contribute or donate Rs10 to save the lives of the poor,” he said while adding that the initiative could yield at least Rs20 lakh at a conservative estimate.
The Kaimur district administration has launched this programme along with the local unit of the Red Cross Society.The catchline for the unique local programme for medicare to the poor people is “dus rupaiye ka daan, bachaye ek jaan (a donation of rupees 10 can save a life), said the DM.“It’s a very common sight in districts like Kaimur that poor people die because lack of money needed on emergency for medicare. We thought over this and have taken this initiate to save as much lives of poor people as we can,” he said.
Under the programme the administration is providing 4,00,000 coupons of Rs10 to the poor of the district through all 151 mukhiyas, panchayat sewaks, panchayat rojgar sewaks, nagar panchayat chairman and executive officers in the district to request the people for their contribution, explained Rameshwar Prasad Singh, district secretary of the Red Cross Society.
“If even 50 per cent of the families contribute this would raise at least Rs20 lakh and with that life of a number people could be saved,” he said while adding that the response of the people so far has been more than expectation.“Many more people would be contributing in next few days and I’m sure almost all the four lakh households will be covered in six months of time,” hoped the official.
While expressing satisfaction over the people response the local secretary of the Red Cross Society further said that now the poor people would not have to depend only on Government schemes or Government hospitals for help.For monitoring and transparency in the programme block development officers and sub-divisional magistrates have been directed to keep a watch on collection in their respective areas, said the District Magistrate.
Earlier, when Arvind Kumar Singh was posted as SDO in the Naxal-affected Aurangabad he had hogged headlines for started a unique movement to paint the town with the colour pink.