In an attempt to ensure better health services to the poor, the Yogi Adityanath government has increased medical expenses of BPL families from the existing Rs 24,000 to Rs 56,000 in urban areas under Arogya Nidhi. The poor families left out in the 2011 census will be covered under Mukhyamantri Jan Arogya Scheme.
The government has also hiked the wages of contractual faculty members in the state-run medical colleges and approved letters of comfort for UPEIDA, which has sought bank loan for construction of Bundelkhand Expressway.
The decisions were taken in the state cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath here on Tuesday.
State government spokesperson Sidharth Nath Singh told reporters in Lucknow that the cabinet has scrapped the cap of Rs 24,000 on the medical expenses of BPL families under Arogya Nidhi. Now in the rural areas, the limit of the medical expenses will be Rs 46,000 per family while in urban areas, it will be Rs 56,500.
“Besides, the BPL families are now entitled to treatment in all medical colleges, district hospitals along with superspecialty hospitals like SGPGI, KGMU and BHU,” the spokesman said.
In another decision, the government approved a list 10.12 lakh poor families who can get medical facilities under Mukhyamantri Jan Arogya as they were not included in the Pradhanmantri Jan Arogya Scheme. “A scrutiny has shown that around 1.68 families have their names in both the state and Central schemes and after discarding them from the state list, we can add fresh numbers to this list,” Singh said.
The Central scheme only gives benefit to the families included in the 2011 census.
The government also approved medical facilities for the 37 SC/ST families in Umbha village of Sonbhadra district under Mukhyamantri Jan Arogya Scheme. These families were not included in Socio-Economic Caste Census 2011.
Wages: In another decision, the government hiked the wages of contractual doctors teaching in medical colleges. Now, a professor will get Rs 1,35,000 per month as honorarium in place of Rs 90,000, an associate professor Rs 1,20,000 per month in place of Rs 80,000, assistant professor Rs 90,000 in place of Rs 60,000, and lecturer Rs 75,000 in place of Rs 50,000. However, the payscale of permanent doctors is one-and-a-half times more than that of the contractual ones. There are 542 posts vacant in 13 medical colleges.
Tax benefits: The cabinet gave its nod for letters of comfort to seven industries to avail government sops, including in tax, registration and stamp duty. Companies including M/s Haldiram Snacks Pvt Ltd (Gautam Budh Nagar), M/s JK Cement Ltd (Aligarh), M/s Silverton Pulp and Papers Pvt Ltd (Muzaffarnagar), M/s SLMG Beverages Pvt Ltd (Barabanki), M/s R Pulp and Paper Ltd (Shahjahanpur), M/s Greenply Industries Ltd (Hardoi, Sandila) and M/s Nikita Papers Ltd have been issued letters of comfort. Total investment made by these companies is Rs 2862.70 crore. The companies are expected to give jobs to 7,592 people.
Bundelkhand Expressway: The government has approved letters of comfort and guarantee for bank loans amounting to around Rs 7,000 crore for the civil construction of Bundelkhand Expressway. Under the agreement, the government will pay the interest of the loan amount for three years till UPEDA starts collecting revenue through toll. The Bank of Baroda consortium will give the loan for the expressway, which will be built between Chitrakoot and Etawah.
Vehicles: The government has approved the proposal of the Estate department to purchase 16 new vehicles in place of old vehicles auctioned for Rs 77 lakh. The Estate department will purchase 15 Fortuner and one Innova Crysta vehicles at the expense of Rs 4.75 crore.
The cabinet approved demolition of an old building in Agra Medical College for construction of a central library and also took congisance of the progress report of Kashi Vishwanath Corridor, whose entire land will be acquired by December and the work will start from January next year.
The government has also hiked the honorarium of two media advisors of the Information department —Salabh Mani Tripath and Rais Singh. They will now get Rs 1 lakh per month as against the existing Rs 40,000. Besides, their HRA has also been hiked from Rs 10,000 per month to Rs 25,000 per month.
