Lok Sabha Discusses Health Budget: Calls For Increased Funding & Improved Facilities
Members Highlight Rural Health Concerns & Medical College Expansion
The Lok Sabha today took up discussion on demands for grants related to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for 2024-25. Initiating the discussion in the House, Tariq Anwar of Congress stressed the availability of medical facilities to the common people.
He alleged that sufficient budgetary allocation was not made in this year’s budget to improve basic health facilities in the rural areas. He also pointed towards higher prices of medicines, alleging that people are unable to afford medicines.
Dr. Sanjay Jaiswal of the BJP said the government is paying special attention to the education and health sectors. He said, in 2014, there were only 387 medical colleges in the country, which has now increased to 706. Mr Jaiswal said that there were only around 51 thousand medical seats in 2014, which have now increased to more than one lakh. He said the government started the Ayushman Bharat Yojana to provide health facilities to the people.
He said more than three crore people have taken benefit of this scheme so far. Mr Jaiswal said that in this year’s budget, three cancer medicines have been exempted from customs duty, which will benefit 27 lakh cancer patients in the country. Lalji Verma of the Samajwadi Party said the health budget was decreased as compared to the financial year 2023-24.
He said the number of medical colleges in the country increased, but they lack basic facilities. Dr. Sharmila Sarkar of TMC also raised the issue of insufficient funding towards the health sector. She stressed the need for dedicated funding for mental health services.
Dr. Rani Srikumar of DMK urged the government to increase the budgetary allocation of health and family welfare by more than 2.5 percentage points of GDP and also support Tamil Nadu by timely allocation of funds.
Ramprit Mandal of JD(U) hailed the budgetary allocation of 90 thousand 659 crore rupees for the health sector in the Union Budget. He said, out of it. Over three thousand crore rupees have been earmarked for research activities.
Gurumoorthy Maddila of YSRCP requested the government to increase the number of seats in government medical colleges as well as set up more medical colleges across the country.
Daggumalla Prasada Rao of TDP urged the Union Health Minister to consider setting up a comprehensive cancer hospital in Andhra Pradesh as the cancer cases are increasing day by day.
Manoj Tiwari of the BJP said that the government has been continuously increasing the budget for health. He said that last year’s health budget was over 80 thousand 517 crore rupees, which has been increased to over 90 thousand crore rupees this year.
Other members, including Sunil Bose of Congress, Sudhakar Singh of RJD, Advocate Chandrashekhar of the Aazad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram), and Vishnu Datt Sharma of the BJP, also participated in the discussion. After that, the House took up matters of urgent public importance, in which members raised several issues. After completing it, the Chair adjourned the House for the day.
