To woo UP, Modi govt okays upgrade of six state hospitals

Eyeing success in Uttar Pradesh assembly election, which is due to be held in 2017, the Narendra Modi government has started wooing the people of the state. Starting with health issue, the Modi government has okayed upgradation of six government medical college hospitals in state.

While announcing the ‘gift’ from the Centre for Uttar Pradesh, union health minister Harsh Vardhan on Sunday said that six hospitals in the state would be modernised and converted into super-speciality institutions along the lines of the prestigious All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

The minister, who was on one-day visit to Kanpur, said, ‘The high disease burden of UP, which also has the largest population among all states, has influenced the decision to add two more colleges to the already cleared list of government medical colleges for upgradation under phase 3 of the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha  Yojana (PMSSY).’ 

‘I attach high priority to UP and have been here twice already in my three month-long tenure. As I had been a medical student in Kanpur, I happen to know that the need of the hour is to expand the infrastructure at an unprecedented rate because we have to make up for many years of neglect,’ the health minister said. 

Kanpur’s Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Memorial Medical College, is Vardhan’s alma mater. ‘This medical college’s upgrade is to be put on the fast-track as it is servicing a huge population with no comparable facility in and around Kanpur, the minister stated.  Apart from this one, Sarojini Naidu Medical College, Agra also joins the PMSSY list. The four already under the third phase of the programme are the ones at Gorakhpur, Allahabad, Meerut and Jhansi.