The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved a proposal to set up an integrated network of trauma centres across the major road-links to provide timely medical assistance to accident victims. As per the plan, 140 state government hospitals along the Golden Quadrilateral, north-south and east-west corridors of the National Highways, would be upgraded for the purpose.While 20 hospitals will be upgraded to Level I trauma centres, 40 will be made Level II and 80 will be made Level III trauma care centres. The project is estimated to cost Rs 732.75 crore and will be implemented during the 11th Plan period. The proposal, approved on Thursday by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, was agreed upon earlier this year by the ministries of Road Transport and Health & Family Welfare. The step comes in the wake of over a lakh deaths reported in road accidents across the country. The National Highways Authority of India is also expanding its fleet of ambulances, patrol vehicles and cranes along the GQ stretches.The Government wants to keep the road death figures down by providing well-equipped ambulances manned by trained paramedics every 50 kilometres of the GQ stretches. The Sundar Committee report on Road Safety, submitted earlier this year to the Ministry of Shipping, Road Transport & Highways, pointed out that road fatalities had been rising continuously and had claimed more deaths in the country than diseases like Tuberculosis, Malaria and AIDS. The Cabinet also approved introduction of patient care allowance for non-ministerial railway employees working in Railway Health units, general hospitals and super speciality hospitals. As per the decision, hospital patient care allowance up to Rs 700 per month and Rs 695 per month will be admissible for the identified Group C & D railway employees.Other decisions•The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs clears a Rs 316.81-crore marketing support and services scheme for handicraft artisans to be implemented during the 11th Plan period. The scheme comprises marketing support to artisans for both the domestic and international market. •The Cabinet clears a proposal by the Ministry of Communication to relax the General Financial Rules to allow SBI and UTI mutual funds to manage the funds of the Post Office Life Insurance Fund (POLIF) and Rural Post Office Life Insurance Fund (RPOLIF). While POLIF had a corpus of Rs 8,934 crore in March 2006, RPOLIF had about Rs 1,625 crore. •The Cabinet gives approval to further pursue the Gram Nyayalayas Bill in Parliament and to move official amendments in Rajya Sabha. The Legislation envisages establishing courts at village level to clear the backlog of cases and provide a forum for settlement of disputes with simplified procedure to “make justice accessible to the common man” •Cabinet extends National Commission For Safai Karamcharis tenure by 15 months•Modernisation of India Meteorological Department gets a nod•Cabinet gives green signal to Double Taxation Agreement with Senegal
