Karnataka to identify 100 backward talukas as aspirational to ensure all-round development

The government will provide coaching for National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test for medical admissions in all talukas and facilitate loans for poor students securing admission under the government quota in all medical colleges. Private medical colleges will be classed into A, B, C and D categories and fees fixed by the fee regulation committee.

The budget also proposes to establish 300 women’s health centres under the National Health Mission. To provide well-equipped medical facilities in talukas, seven hospitals will be upgraded to 100-bedded hospitals. Besides, the free dialysis service will be upgraded from 30,000 to 60,000 cycles per month at a cost of Rs 20 crore.

Cardiac-related treatment will be provided for rural people by aligning 75 taluka hospitals with the Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research in Bengaluru. In districts, government hospitals with more than 200 beds will be converted into teaching hospitals with postgraduate courses. Postgraduate medical courses will be started in the Tumkur District Government Hospital.

The budget referred to the Shuchi scheme for distributing sanitary napkins to around 19 lakh students and promised to provide menstrual cups along the lines of a scheme in Madhya Pradesh. “We will join hands with self-help groups to distribute menstrual cups in Dakshina Kannada and Chamarajanagara districts on an experimental basis,” Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said.

Mental health programmes will be organised in Kolar, Chikkaballapur and Bengaluru Urban districts with the support of Nimhans. A programme to provide 76 life-saving services within 48 hours of admission to hospitals for accident patients will be started through the Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust. Mobile clinics will be established under the Mukhyamantri Arogya Vahini scheme at a cost of Rs.11 crore in Bidar, Chamarajanagara, Haveri and Chikkamagalur districts to provide medical services on the doorstep in rural areas. Giving further boost to healthcare, the budget proposed telemedicine experts in medical universities in the same districts. Under the National Health Mission the senior citizens can avail of free eye check-ups and, if necessary, surgical treatment and free spectacles.

While a new Ayurveda college will be established in Savanur taluka of Haveri, an Ayush division will be started in the district hospital of Yadgir. The chief minister also announced a Rs 1,000 increase in the monthly honorarium of Asha volunteers.

“Our government will take up long-pending construction work on the campus of Rajiv Gandhi University of Medical Sciences in Archakarahalli of Ramanagara at a cost of Rs 600 crore. To make hi-tech treatment available in north Karnataka, a regional cardiac centre of the Jayadeva Institute of Cardiology will be established at a cost of Rs 250 crore in Hubballi. A modular 500-bedded hospital will be constructed in three phases in the Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital,” Bommai said.

A department of foetal medicine and neonatology will be opened in the Vani Vilas Hospital in Bengaluru. The government will also establish the Kidwai Regional Cancer Centre at a cost of Rs 50 crore in Belagavi.

A new medical college in Chitradurga district and a new trauma care centre in Tumakuru will also be established. At places with a high density of construction workers, 100 hi-tech mobile clinics will be started. The bed capacity of the Employee State Insurance Hospitals in Hubbali and Davangere will be doubled with central assistance, and 19 new clinics will be established in the state.