Bihar demands Rs 100cr from Centre to set up a Pediatric ICU at Muzaffarpur

PATNA: Bihar government on Friday demanded Rs 100 crore from the Centre to set up a Pediatric Intensive care unit (PICU) at Muzaffarpur in the wake of death of 124 children due to Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) and establish a research centre to combat the spread of the deadly disease.
Bihar deputy CM and finance minister Sushil Kumar Modi made this demand at the pre-budget meeting of Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman with finance ministers of states and UTs held at Vigyna Bhavan in Delhi on Friday.
“The recent deaths of children at Muzaffarpur and other districts of Bihar due to AES requires more attention to research, diagnosis and treatment of the disease. The Central Government may consider establishment of 100 bed Pediatric ICU at SKMCH, Muzaffarpur. In addition, establishment of Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) and Multi-Disciplinary Research Centre at the SKMCH is also necessary. The total funds requirement to set up this facility would be around Rs 100 crore," Sushil Modi said in his address at the meeting.
He also said the non-release of funds to Bihar under the National Health Mission (NHM) has adversely affected the infrastructure maintenance related expenditure in Family Welfare Programme. "Funds have not been released for the year 2014-15, 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18 under Infrastructure Maintenance Head of National Health Mission. The Central Government is hereby requested to release a total amount of Rs 768.24 crore at the earliest," Modi, who is no-2 in Bihar cabinet after CM Nitish Kumar, told the union finance minister.
Bihar finance minister further urged the Centre to make necessary changes in policy to upgrade an existing medical colleges as an AIIMS-like institution as promised by the Centre in previous Union Budget. “Instead of building new AIIMS-like institutions, the existing medical colleges could be upgraded to AIIMS-like institutions. A policy for brown-field upgradation of Medical College Hospitals into AIIMS-like institutions could be considered,” he requested Sitharaman.
SuMo also urged the Centre to reimburse Rs 29,400 crore to Bihar which Nitish Kumar-led government has planned to spend under the ‘Har Ghar Nal Ka Jal’ (tap water to every household)' scheme.
He said the State Government has undertaken 'Saat Nishchay' (Seven Resolves) to promote the commitment of ensuring ‘development with justice’ in the state. One of the components of ‘Saat Nishchay’ is 'Har Ghar Nal Ka Jal' (tap water to every household).
"The total resource requirement for this programme is Rs 23,200 crore. In addition, the concerned department will require Rs 6,200 crore for operation and maintenance cost for 5 years. Thus, the total fund requirement for the programme is Rs 29,400 crore. Till date, the State Government has already allocated Rs 23,200 crore for the programme. Now that the Central Government has launched Jal Shakti Scheme to provide safe drinking water to all households, it is strongly suggested that the Central Government reimburses the cost of piped drinking water programme in Bihar. Under Saat Nishchay, piped water is being provided to all rural households," Sushil Modi said.