Nadda trashes Nitish 'hollow claim' in Health sector

PATNA: The NDA government today sought to expose the "hollow claim" of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on health issue by highlighting declining figures of institutional delivery as well as slide in number of patients coming to hospitals when JD(U) was in power without BJP.

While OPD patients per 10,000 of patients in 2013-14 was 7,141, it slided to 6,532 in 2014-15, Union Health Minister J P Nadda told reporters.

Against 15 lakh institutional deliveries in 2013-14, there were 14 lakh institutional deliveries in 2014-15, he said.

Highlighting infrastructural bottlenecks in Bihar, Nadda said the state faced 45 per cent shortage of doctors, 70 per cent shortage of specialists and 84 per cent shortage of paramedical staff.

Nadda, who has been campaigning in Bihar in favour of NDA in the elections, sought to expose "hollow claims" of Nitish Kumar on health count which he has been highlighting among his big achievements of 10-year of rule.

The Union Health Minister said the state government could draw only Rs 1,148 crore out of a total allocation of Rs 2,000 crore under National Health Mission for 2014-15.

Out of even this truncated lifting of funds, the state government instead of providing it to Health department, kept the money of first instalment in its coffer for 100 days and second instalment for 89 days thus delaying the implementation unnecessarily, he said.

Similarly, out of a total of Rs 3,286 crore given by the Centre for construction of building in hospitals in 2014-15, only Rs 1,843 crore could be spent by the state government, he added.

Under National Urban Health Mission, Nadda said 54 cities of Bihar had been selected, but the state government could send comprehensive plan for 15 cities only.

Despite several reminders, the Nitish Kumar government had till date not been able to provide land for construction of second AIIMS in Bihar in addition to the one in Patna, he said.

Asked that Bill and Melinda Gates foundation which carried out anti-polio drive in Bihar praised Nitish Kumar for eradicating polio from the state, Nadda said, "this was done by an outside body whose success Nitish Kumar was taking without marshalling his own health resources."