Speed up utilisation of Central funds for medical faculties challenge: Health Ministry

Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan. File
| Photo Credit: The Hindu

The Centre has urged 14 States to speed up utilisation of central funds and expedite completion of recent medical faculties hooked up with current district/referral hospitals permitted underneath Centrally Sponsored Scheme for early graduation of UG programs.

The concern over the gradual progress of those initiatives was strongly highlighted by Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan as he reviewed them with well being secretaries and administrators (Medical Education) of 14 States via video convention on Thursday. A complete of 157 new medical faculties have been sanctioned underneath this scheme since 2014, in three phases to this point.

The States and Union Territories that participated within the overview assembly have been Andaman and Nicobar islands, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Jharkhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha and Punjab. 

Mr. Bhushan urged the States to expedite the bodily completion of initiatives to allow graduation of UG programs by educational session 2023-24.

“It was pointed out that since the scheme will conclude on 31st March 2024, hence all projects need to be completed in time. It was informed that a sum of ₹7,500 crores have been allotted for the schemes of Human Resources for Health (HRH) and Medical Education (ME) for financial year 2022-23,’’ said the release.

States were told that utilisation certificates have to be furnished without delay to enable the Centre to release balance funds. State administration was also advised to regularly review the progress and urgently update the Union Ministry portal.

States were advised to explore and use locally-relevant green technology options, and steel composite structures for the projects that are yet to start. 

The Government of India had launched the Centrally Sponsored Scheme for “Establishment of new medical colleges attached with existing district/referral hospitals” in January, 2014, with fund sharing between the Central authorities and States within the ratio of 90:10 for particular class states and 60:40 for different states.

This scheme is being applied in three phases – Phase-I (2014) with 58 medical faculties protecting 13 Aspirational districts; Phase-II (2018) with 24 medical faculties in 6 Aspirational districts; and Phase-III (2019) with 75 Medical Colleges inside 20 Aspirational districts.