Showing his government’s commitment towards ensuring development in the state, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath asked his ministers to curtail expenses so that the government could provide better facilities to the people.
“We have waived of farm loans to the tune of over Rs 36,000 crore. Our critics say that the decision will impede development as we will not have enough money. I urge my ministers to curtail expenses. Save every paisa so that we do not have to compromise on development. We have projects in place to meet the crunch,” Yogi said during a function outside his 5, KD Marg residence where he flagged off 150 hi-tech ambulances equipped with life saving equipment on Thursday.
These vehicles called Advance life Support (AlS) ambulances will have ventilators and would be used in cases of heart attacks, burns and delivery cases. Besides, they will have Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT) to provide assistance at the time of crisis.
“Initially we will provide two ambulances in each district and they will cater to critical patients only. These ambulances will be equipped with GPS so that their misuse could be prevented,” Yogi said.
The CM stressed, “This government is committed to extending health facilities to the masses. Such hi-tech ambulances will reach patients within 15 minutes in cities and within 30 minutes in rural areas.”
When the Chief Minister was informed that the operation of such ambulances was controlled by private agencies, he said that the private workers should get salary on time.
“I know in many agencies these people are made to work for over 12 hours but are not paid salary on time. This is inhuman. The government officials who monitor these ambulances should also ensure that people were getting timely remuneration,” he said.
Yogi spoke at length about his government’s vision about development and said the Central government wanted to help the state but the previous SP government refused to accept the funds fearing that the credit for the scheme would go to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“We should come out of such mindset. We work for the betterment of people and our commitment should be towards people. We have made an effort to improve health services in the state and would ensure that people get the best available facility in state-run hospitals,” he said.
In the same vein, Yogi said that he knew that there was scarcity of doctors at the CHCs and PHCs and infrastructure was poor. “This government is working in this direction and I hope that the situation will improve in a couple of months,” the CM said.
Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, Health minister Sidharthnath Singh, Tourism minister Rita Bahuguna Joshi and MoS Women and Child Welfare Swati Singh also attended the function.