Centre releases Rs 8,500 crore health sector grants for states
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, November 13
The Finance Ministry has Rs 8,453.92 crore as health sector grant for rural and urban local bodies of 19 States. The grants have been released as per the recommendations of the Fifteenth Finance Commission.
Punjab will get about Rs 400 crore and Himachal Pradesh Rs 98 crore but no amount has been released to Haryana as it is among the nine states which have not submitted their proposals to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, said an official news release.
The Fifteenth Finance Commission (FC-XV) in its Report for the period from 2021-22 to 2025-26 has recommended a total grant of Rs.4,27,911 crore to local governments.
The grants recommended by the Commission inter include health grants of Rs 70,051 crore. Out of this amount, Rs 43,928 crore have been recommended for Rural Local Bodies and Rs 26,123 crore for Urban Local Bodies.
These grants are meant to strengthen health systems and plug the critical gaps in the health care system at the primary health care level.
“Rural and urban local bodies can play a key role in the delivery of primary health care services especially at the ‘cutting edge’ level and help in achieving the objective of Universal Health Care,’’ said an official news release.
Strengthening the local governments in terms of resources, health infrastructure and capacity building can enable them to play a catalytic role in epidemics and pandemics too, it added.
Involving Panchayati Raj institutions and Urban Local Government as supervising agencies would strengthen the overall primary health care system. The involvement of local governments will also make the health system accountable to the people.
