Dr Meinya demands regular Director for RIMS
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, April 30 2015 : MP Dr T Meinya urged the Union Health Minister, who is also the Chairman of the Executive Council of RIMS, to appoint a regular Director for the premier medical institute of the North East region while taking part at the discussion of the demands for grants under the control of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for the financial year 2015-16 in Lok Sabha yesterday.

He said that the regular Director of RIMS has been relieved of his duties recently and the institute is being administered by a Director-in- charge, which is not healthy for the institute.

Opposing the demand for grants, the MP said that the budget allocation for the year is too meagre and it is not at all enough.

There is an increase of hardly Rs 611 crore, he added.

Regarding training and research as well, the increment is only about Rs 1,000 crore.

As such, he said that the increment is too meagre to meet the needs for huge task of research and development in the health sector, he said.

Dr Meinya said that the meagre fund provided to the Ministry in this year's budget would remain as a drop of water in the vast ocean towards meeting the commitments made in the last year's budget speech.

Health being a State subject, the federal Government should be adequately funded through a well-planned manner, he said and added that the decrease of about Rs 600 crore in the State Plan shows a very poor light on the cooperative federalism as envisaged by the Prime Minister.

Of the 1.25 billion population, majority is in the rural areas and they have been seriously marginalised in terms of even basic healthcare facilities and the doctor-patient ratio is at the bottom low, he said.

The National Health Mission having been completely stopped funding, the plight of the marginalised section of the society, minorities, Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes, women and children increases exponentially, he said.

The health centres in the rural areas and far flung areas do not have basic infrastructure to cater to the minimum healthcare needs of these people.

The situation is alarming and these areas are prone to epidemics, he said and added that one can imagine the helplessness of rural populace at the time of such epidemics.

Lastly, the position of the revenue crunched States of the North-Eastern States and other erstwhile special category States of the country is all the more critical, he said.

The Union Government should come out with a very clear cut policy on the issue especially for these disadvantaged States, he added.

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