Not enough in Punjab Budget for ailing health system

Tribune News Service

Vishav Bharti

Chandigarh, June 27

With the allocation of Rs 4,731 crore, the AAP government today claimed to have increased the budget outlay for the health sector by 23.80% this fiscal as compared to 2021-22.

16 new medical colleges in 5 yrs

• Giving a booster to medical education and research in the state, the government has proposed Rs 1,033 crore for medical education, which is an increase of 56.60% over FY 2021-22
• The focus will be on setting up 16 new medical colleges in the next five years — taking the number of such colleges to 25 — upgrading existing medical colleges and increasing MBBS seats in the colleges
• The govt also announced Rs 50 crore for establishing a new medical college, Sant Baba Attar Singh State Institute of Medical Sciences at Sangrur, with 100 MBBS seats, besides Punjab Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences at Mohali

However, experts feel that budgetary provisions for the health sector may not be much helpful in rejuvenating the crumbling health infrastructure, increasing the out-of-the-pocket expenditure and improving the health indicators. Barring announcement on mohalla clinics, the budgetary provisions leave much to be desired.

Scheme for road accident victims

To decrease the casualties in road accidents, the government is going to start ‘Farishtey’ scheme on the lines of Delhi, whereby anyone can take a road accident victim to any hospital. The accident victims will be given free treatment and the entire cost will be borne by the Government of Punjab. Those helping the victims will also be felicitated by the government.

CCTV camera project from Mohali

The Finance Minister on Monday said cyber crime control rooms would be set up in all districts with an outlay of Rs 30 crore. To start with, Rs 5 crore has been proposed for installing CCTV cameras in Mohali and Police Mahila Mittar Kendras this year. The government plans to cover the entire state with CCTV camera network to keep the crime rate in check.

Young Entrepreneur programme

The state government has proposed to start a Punjab Young Entrepreneur Programme for encouraging Class 11 students to propose their business ideas and start their own ventures. “The state government will provide seed money of Rs 2,000 per student under this start-up programme,” the Finance Minister said.

In his maiden Budget speech, Finance Minister Harpal Cheema proposed to establish ‘mohalla/ pind clinics’ in order to decentralise the public health services to the lowest level. This year the government plans to establish 117 mohalla clinics for which an initial allocation of Rs 77 crore has been proposed. The government has announced that 75 of these mohalla clinics will be operationalised by August 15.

Besides, the government has announced two super-speciality hospitals at Patiala and Faridkot in the next two years. Similarly, three more super-speciality hospitals shall be opened by 2027.

Apart from that, the government has proposed to establish estate management unit (EMU), which shall exclusively look into the upkeep and maintenance of the basic sub-structure needs of hospitals or health facilities and remove such glitches in a time-bound manner.

To decrease the casualties in road accidents, the government is going to start ‘Farishtey’ scheme on the lines of Delhi, whereby anyone can take a road accident victim and get him/her admitted to any hospital. The sufferers of road accidents will be given free treatment and the entire cost would be borne by the Government of Punjab and the helper would also be felicitated.

Reacting to the Budget provisions, Dr Arun Mitra, senior vice-president, Indian Doctors for Peace and Development termed 24% increase in the health budget as completely insufficient. “This would not meet the basic requirements to update the existing infrastructure. The ‘out of the pocket’ expenditure on health is one among the highest in Punjab. Health indicators of Punjab are very poor,” he said, adding nearly 30% of the specialist doctors’ posts and 15% of the medical officers’ posts have been lying vacant. This meagre budget will not be able to fulfil the requirements. To bring healthcare in the state to satisfactory level, the health budget should be minimum of 11% of the SGDP.

LEADERSPEAK

Shows no roadmap

Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema made multiple promises, but showed no roadmap how these would be fulfilled. Also, there was no announcement regarding Rs 1,000 per month to every woman above 18. — Partap singh Bajwa, leader of opposition

A step forward

Previous governments looted and emptied the treasury of Punjab. Our honest government eliminated mafia after coming to power. Today’s Budget will take Punjab towards a golden future. — Arvind Kejriwal, AAP National Convener

Figures fudged

Instead of addressing the economic crisis that Punjab has been facing for so long, the Budget is only fudging the figures to paint a rosy picture. It is intriguing that the Budget is silent on electoral promises. — Tarun Chugh, BJP Leader

QUICK NOTES

Demands not met, govt employees disappointed

The working class of Punjab that played an important role in the formation of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government is feeling disappointed with its maiden Budget. Govt Teachers’ Union district spokesman Bhagwant Bhateja said there was no announcement on the arrears from January 1, 2016, nor was there any mention about the installments of dearness allowance stopped by the Congress government. He added the Budget was also silent on confirmation of ad hoc teachers in a time-bound manner.

No focus on addl resource mobilisation: Prof

Jaswinder Singh Brar, professor of economics, Punjabi University, Patiala, said the Budget showed extremely bad financial situation of the state, with a huge gap between revenue and expenditure and less stress on additional resource mobilisation. “The state collected Rs 6,200 crore through excise duty during 2021-22. The target for the next year is set at Rs 9,647.87 crore, which is low. It could have been enhanced by a drastic change in the liquor policy,” he stressed.

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