The Centre agreed to release Rs 90.84 crore for the current financial year (2024-25) towards improving AYUSH services in Andhra Pradesh.
Minister for Health and Family Welfare Satyakumar Yadav said that only Rs 38 crore was allocated in between 2019-24 for AYUSH but this year, following the request from the state government, the Centre has agreed to increase the funds.
He squarely blamed former CM YS Jagan Mohan Reddy for the pathetic condition of the medical sector in the state.
He slammed Jagan for his false campaign about the construction of 17 government medical colleges during his five-year rule without making them into a reality.
He even could not construct a medical college in his Pulivendula constituency, Yadav criticized.
Reminding that Jagan Mohan Reddy promised to construct 17 medical colleges at a cost of Rs 8,500 crore but by the time, he was voted out of power, he could complete works worth only Rs 2125 crore, which means 25% of the total works. Of the amount, only Rs 1451 crore, which means 16 per cent, payments had been completed.
Jagan Mohan Reddy does not have the moral right to criticize the NDA coalition government in Andhra Pradesh, he asserted.
By the time Jagan was unseated, there is a shortage of 48 percentage of teaching staff and 37 percent of non-teaching staff and how can the NDA government fill the gaps within a couple of months of assuming power, he asked.
Yadav informed that the state government cannot take up admissions in four medical colleges this academic year, which are in the second phase of construction.
MORE FUNDS FROM CENTRE
The minister said that he had met the Union AYUSH minister and higher officials in July this year and briefed them about how the department had been neglected during the last five years.
He thanked the Centre for obliging his request.
Yadav said that he sought funds for strengthening the AYUSH department, improving the supply of medicines in AYUSH medical centres, completion of 50-bedded hospitals whose construction was abandoned, construction of dilapidated AYUSH dispensaries, various AYUSH schemes, for government AYUSH colleges, strengthening 126 AYUSHMAN medical centres.
He informed that of the 90 AYUSHMAN centres sent for recognition by the NBH, 89 had been sanctioned.
A new Ayurveda College would be constructed at Dharmavaram and a 100-bedded hospital will also be built in association with it.
Briefing about other AYUSH hospitals and colleges, he said that over Rs 20 crore funds would be released towards their construction at identified places in the state.
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