The National Health Mission (NHM) has secured yet another lease of life with the State treasury releasing a part of this year’s (2014-15) Central allocation for disease-control activities in the State after a delay of over two months.
The NHM was left bankrupt in the months of October and November last, with the State treasury holding all its funds.
With barely three months to go before the present NHM Programme Implementation Plan ends, this inflow of funds is unlikely to be of much help as there is hardly any time left for the implementation of various activities under any of the disease-control programmes. Almost all of these programmes, including non-communicable diseases, TB, blindness control, leprosy, and mental health, have been barely up on its feet this year because of funds shortage.
Payments
NHM officials said the present allocation would at least help clear the huge backlog of employees' salaries and disbursement of payments under welfare programmes such as Janani Suraksha Yojana and Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakram.
The inordinate delay in the release of NHM funds has dealt a body blow to programme implementation. The Union government has decided to route all funds for Centrally-sponsored schemes through State treasuries. Till then, Central funds were directly deposited in the NHM account.
The administrative approval for the State’s NHM PIP (Programme Implementation Plan) this year was for an amount of Rs.536.79 crore, of which the State share is Rs.123.96 crore.
The NHM has now received about Rs.275 crore, including the State share of Rs.75 crore. About Rs.23-30 crore of the allocated fund is still tied up in the treasury.
“We are working hard to ensure that the funds reach the districts. We need to produce a statement of expenditure immediately to secure the final allocation from the Centre. We cannot spend more than 25-30 per cent of the allocation in the last quarter too. Unless the State creates an emergency channel for releasing Health Department funds, many of the on-going health schemes could be drastically affected,” an NHM official said.
