Jharkhand cabinet nod to MoU with Gujarat hospitals for free treatment of 1,000 heart patients

The Jharkhand cabinet on Friday approved MoU with Prashanti Medical Services and Research Foundation (PMSRF) for getting free treatment of 1,000 heart patients at two hospitals managed by the charitable trust in Gujarat.

“Under the MoU, 500 heart patients of 3 months to 18 years will be treated at Sri Sathya Sai Heart Hospital, Ahmedabad, and another 500 patients of age 18 year to 65 years will be treated at Sri Sathya Sai Heart Hospital, Rajkot. A total of 1,000 patients with heart related issues will be treated free of cost,” Vandana Dadel, Principal Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat and Monitoring Department, said.

Announcing another major decision on the health front, Dadel said, “The cabinet has approved around Rs 396 crores for a new 500-bed hospital at Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College and Hospital, Jamshedpur.” The multi specialty government hospital currently has 540 beds.

The cabinet also increased the retirement age of non-teaching doctors and specialist doctors from 65 years to 67 years.

“The MLA fund has been increased from Rs 4 crore to Rs 5 crore per year,” said Dadel about the cabinet decision on the proposal of the rural development department.

The cabinet has further approved the setting up of eight new polytechnics in the state under the PanIIT Alumni Reach for Jharkhand (PReJHA) Foundation, a joint venture between PanIIT Alumni Reach for India and the welfare department of Jharkhand.

“The building is ready for the polytechnics and the eight districts where these will come up are Khunti, Chatra, Lohardaga, Hazaribag, Jamtara, Godda, Bagodar (Giridih) and Palamu,” said Dadel.

To prevent illegal consumption of drugs, the cabinet approved Rs 1.70 crore for the current fiscal under the National Action Plan for Drug Demand Reduction.

Another important decision among various others was to raise the compensation for field officers engaged in rural job guarantee scheme MGNREGA. Different categories have different hikes. For block program officers, payment has been increased from Rs 19,500 to Rs 23,140 for those with less than five years of experience. For those with above five years experience, the salary has been raised from Rs 20,000 to Rs 23,700.