CM injects new life into ailing health sector

• Launches 78 jeep ambulances for all agency areas
• Rajiv Bala Sanjeevini to benefit 3.5 lakh school kids

G K Veedhi (Visakhapatnam): Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy gave a fresh lease of life to the ailing sector in the areas of the state. At a meeting held here on Sunday, he launched 78 jeep ambulances under 108 scheme --25 for north Andhra . He said each jeep-turned-ambulance cost Rs 10 lakh. Every ambulance would have a doctor, a nurse and an attendant. The service under 108 would cover all remote parts of the Agency. Another ambitious project was Rajiv Bala Sanjeevani under which these 108 ambualances would visit all the schools and conduct medical check- up once in a fortnight. The scheme would cover 3.5 lakh school children of 667 schools in the state agency areas and incur an expenditure of Rs 6 crore per annum. This unique scheme would cover tribal students initially and later extended to Scheduled Caste /Tribe and BCs. The Chief Minister also laid foundation for a 100-bed hospital in Chintapalle at a cost of Rs 7 crore. The area has been demanding a hospital for decades. Among the other things, he laid foundation for 902 km-long road to cover most of the villages in Paderu division under the Prime Minister's Grameena Sadak Yojana scheme. Initially the scheme would cover villages having a population of 250 and later extended to hamlets having a population of 100. To contain the Maoists, he said 11 skill developing centres would be opened in the state of which one would be located in GK Veedhi. Each centre would incur an expenditure of Rs 3 crore per annum. "The centres would help the government in filling the 20,000 backlog posts. So far the government could fill 16,000 and 4,000 posts are yet to be filled due to lack of skilled personnel,'' he added. Similarly he announced six polytechnic colleges in the state and three of them would be located in Seethampeta and GL Puram in Vizianagaram district and one in Chintapalle.