The Ministry of AYUSH has once again sought clarifications from the State government on the anti-NEET Bill. The response will be sent within two weeks, Health Minister Ma. Subramanian said.
Earlier, the departments of AYUSH, Higher Education, and Health and Family Welfare, had sought a number of clarifications on the Bill through the Ministry of Home Affairs, he said.
“We had consulted with legal experts and sent an appropriate response to the three departments. On January 13, the Ministry of AYUSH sent a letter seeking some clarifications again. We will consult legal experts and send our response in a week or two,” he told reporters on Thursday.
He added the clarifications sought were on the replies previously submitted by the Health Department.
Reacting to AIADMK leader Edappadi K. Palaniswami’s criticism of Makkalai Thedi Maruthuvam, the Minister said that if he was willing to visit the Directorate of Public Health (DPH) and Preventive Medicine, they were ready to share the list of one crore beneficiaries under the scheme.
Mr. Subramanian said the Tamil Nadu Medical Services Corporation had spent an additional budget of ₹85 crore for buying drugs and equipment such as dialysis bags under the scheme in the last one year.
A portal with details of the beneficiaries, their contact details, nature of disease and medications prescribed is being readied, he added.
AWARDS FOR T.N.
Tamil Nadu was awarded the best performing State for implementing certain schemes during the ‘Workshop on school health and wellness ambassador programme’ conducted by the Union Health Ministry on January 16 and 17 in New Delhi.
The State received the ‘Best Converging Mechanisms Award’ - the National Health Mission (NHM). Tamil Nadu is implementing the RBSK programme and School Health and Wellness Ambassador Programme in convergence with the School Education Department through the DPH.
A total of 70,000 school teachers have screened 41,62,792 children and have referred 9,79,506 children to 805 mobile health teams of the RBSK programme. A total of 6,917 principals and 1,09,216 teachers were trained as School Health and Wellness Ambassadors by the Health Department on a pilot basis in Karur, Perambalur, Tenkasi, Villupuram, Ramanathapuram, Virudhunagar, Ariyalur and Vellore district. A total of 83,881 School Health and Wellness sessions were conducted from April to December 2022.
The State also received the Best Menstrual Hygiene Campaign Award. The menstrual hygiene scheme was implemented in the State covering all adolescent girls in rural and urban areas through the DPH. A total of 43 lakh adolescent girls benefitted, according to a press release.
Health Secretary P. Senthilkumar and Mission Director of NHM -Tamil Nadu, Shilpa Prabhakar Satish were present.
