The State’s health sector and its long-standing requirements have been totally disregarded in the Union Budget 2023-24 presented by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, said Health Minister Veena George here on Thursday.
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The State’s prime requirement and a long-standing request that a AIIMS-like institution be allotted has been ignored yet again in the Budget, even though the State government had completed all land acquisition and related procedures necessary for the project’s approval. The Union Health Minister had been requested several times about the allocation of AIIMS-like institution for Kerala and the fact that land had been acquired for the same at Kinaloor in Kozhikode, Ms. George said..
The State had also requested the Centre that a Haemoglobinopathy Research and Comprehensive Care Centre for Sickle Cell Anaemia patients be set up at Wayanad. No action has been taken in this regard, even while announcing a mission to eliminate SCA.
The other requests put up by the State included Central share allocation for all beneficiaries of KASP, a special One Health centre, hike in the wages of anganwadi employees. It was very disappointing that none of these requests were considered.
The Centre reduced the allocation for Central schemes in the health sector to ₹8,820 crore in the current budget. The 2023-24 budgetary allocation for National Health Mission too showed just a nominal increase by 0.42%, Ms. George said.