Chandigarh, February 18: Though Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal said with the outlay of Rs 3,465.06 crore the allocations for the health sector has been raised by 10.87 per cent, the sector has failed to get much in the Budget.
However, one thing that prominently emerged is that the state government is all out to open floodgates for private players in medical education too.
In the last 45 years, the government has failed to open a single medical college in the state. The much ambitious Mohali College, regarding which announcements have been made in the past two budgets, has remained a non-starter. In 2017-18, the Congress government kept Rs 10 crore and released Rs 50 crore for initial works in 2018-19.
But even after two years, not much has happened on ground and the college is struggling to get approval from the Medical Council of India. Once again on Monday, the Finance Minister proposed an allocation of Rs 60 crore for this upcoming medical college.
However, the bigger announcement was regarding opening floodgates for private players in the field of medical education. Three new medical colleges would be set up in the districts of Gurdaspur, Pathankot and Sangrur under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode.
Besides, Rs 189.15 crore has been allocated for the upgrade of government medical colleges in Patiala and Amritsar. The government has allocated Rs 250 crore for Sarbat Sehat Bima Yojna, the state health insurance programme.
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