lakhs of kidney patients can now breathe easy with the Government going for dialysis centres all across the State. Earlier, only eight districts of the State were provided with the facility at their respective district hospitals.
Informing about the decision taken by the Cabinet on Tuesday, Chief Secretary Sudhir Tripathi said the facility would be provided free of cost to the poor families. "Other 16 districts of the State left out of the dialysis facility would be getting the centres at their respective district hospitals and medical colleges. The centres would be opened on PPP mode under the Prime Minister National Dialysis Programme," said the Chief Secretary while briefing the media.
Earlier only Bokaro, Palamu, Hazaribagh, Dhanbad, Jamshedpur, Chaibasa, Dumka and Gumla had the centres. The Chief Secretary added that tender rate for conducting dialysis was Rs 850 per person. "However, the Government has made it free for BPl patients. Apart from all the district sadar hospitals, the centres would be opened at the medical colleges functional as well as upcoming," he said.
In another decision related to the health sector, the Cabinet sanctioned 225 posts for newly built Trauma Centre and Paying Wards of the RIMS. Establishment cost coming on the appointment is going to be in the tune of Rs 16.03 crore annually.
On the power front, the Cabinet sanctioned Rs 449.2 crore under Jharkhand Power System Improvement project. "The project is funded by the World Bank and going to be used for smart metering facilities in the State. Rs 160 crore of it has to be given by the World Bank while Rs 193.2 crore and Rs 96 crore are the shares of the State and the Centre, respectively. Rs 36.97 crore for the year 2018-19 has been released as well," said the CS. Also, Rs 369 crore has been released under the Jharkhand State Electricity Reform Transfer Scheme for the payment of salary and pension of the employees of erstwhile JSEB.
This apart, all the existing Krishi Vigyan Kendras, 23 in number in the State covering all but one district, would be upgraded as modern breeding centre-cum- training centre for farmers at a cost of Rs 26.52 crore. Training of dairy, poultry, fishery, goatery and piggery would be imparted to them.
The Cabinet, at the same time, decided to bring amendment Bills to remove the provision kept in the Bills presented and passed for setting up Sainath University and Usha Martin University. "The Bills would be presented before the Assembly during the next session which would bar the universities from providing affiliations to any college. As per the UGC guideline any private or deemed university cannot give affiliation to any institution," said Sudhir Tripathi.
He added further that consultancy fee for preparing master plan for the new core capital area coming up on HEC land had been raised from present Rs 2.1 crore to Rs 5.9 crore as the area of the buildings coming up over there have gone up from 78000 square metres to 2.19 lakh square metres.
In another important decision, the Cabinet amended selection criteria for the beneficiaries of BR Ambedkar housing scheme. The beneficiaries earlier were to be selected based on socio-economic and caste census-2011 but now can be availed by fire, hailstorm and other calamity affected persons. Also, widows with certain parameters would be eligible.