HYDERABAD: While Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao and Finance Minister T Harish Rao have maintained that the State is all set to tackle the Coronavirus outbreak, in the Budget presented by the latter on Sunday, no allocation was made to the Epidemic Control Schemes and their related supplies and materials.
In a slight increase from the last Budget, Harish Rao allocated Rs 6,186 crore for health while declaring that a special action plan will be initiated for schemes like Kanti Velugu to tackle ear-nose-throat related treatments. The State is all set to get 232 more Basti Dawakhana in an attempt to strengthen primary level access to healthcare in urban areas. The State already has 118 Basti Dawakhana.
Citing a declaration made by NITI Aayog that Telangana stood third place in the country for quality of health and medical Services, Harish Rao said, "This is an example that action taken by the government to improve public health has yielded good results. The number of inpatients increased by 20 per cent in the government hospitals."
"Apart from starting two Basthi Dawakhanas in every Division, the government will also establish more Basthi Dawakhanas in the places where SCs, STs, minorities and poor people are residing. Eye tests were conducted covering 1.54 crore people and medicines and spectacles were distributed freely to the needy persons. The government will shortly initiate a special action plan to diagnose the ear-nose-throat and dental related diseases on the lines of Kanti Velugu," the finance minister added.
The State government also plans to go ahead with its plan of health profiling of every citizen and to create the Telangana Health Profile. However, allocation to epidemic control schemes has not been made in the last three years.
While the State battled with a massive dengue epidemic in 2019-20, with over 9,000 people affected, only allocation made for preventive diseases was Rs 20 crore to the Institute Of Preventive Medicine and that too with no increase as compared to 2018 and 2019.
No allocation for new medical colleges
While medical students can heave a sigh of relief as allocation of stipends and scholarships have been increased multi-fold, no special allocation has been made for new medical colleges or the Osmania General Hospital building. The last allocation for construction of medical colleges and hospitals was made in 2018-19. In terms of stipend, teaching hospitals have been allocated Rs 20 crore as compared to last year’s Rs 14 crore. For allopathy hospitals, Rs 120 crore has been allocated as compared to last year’s Rs 40 cr
KCR pats Harish for presenting ‘realistic’ Budget
HYDERABAD: While terming the Budget as a balanced one, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao complimented Finance Minister T Harish Rao for presenting a “realistic” Budget. He said that it is a progressive Budget. "It’s a realistic Budget that strikes a balance between the income, expenditure and needs of the people," he said.
He congratulated Harish Rao after the latter introduced the Budget in the Legislative Assembly. He also congratulated Legislative Affairs Minister Vemula Prashanth Reddy who introduced the Budget in the Legislative Council, Principal Finance Secretary K Ramakrishna Rao and other officials who played a part in preparation of the Budget