Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

The Government, on Tuesday, was criticised by the Controller and Auditor General (CAG) of India for the delay in setting up 6 new centers of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana. The six centers were supposed to be set up between August 2011 and July 2013.

The Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana is a health scheme introduced in 2003, with the aim of correcting the imbalances in the availability of tertiary health services in the country, along with improving the overall quality of medical education in India.

In a report titled ‘Performance Audit on Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana’ filed before the Parliament on Tuesday, the Comptroller and Auditor General pointed out deficiencies in project and contract management, laxity in administration and poor monitoring as reasons for the delay. The lapses led to increases in the cost of setting up the institutes by Rs. 140.28 crores, which included excess payments of Rs. 39.96 crores to the contractor.

The performance audit covered the period between 2003 and 2017 and revealed that several out of the 42 sanctioned departments in AIIMS were not yet functional. The report also pointed out deficiencies relating to; shortages of beds in hospitals between 43% and 84%, shortages in teaching staffs between 55% and 83%, and shortages in non-teaching staff between 77% and 97%.

The CAG, in the performance audit, reported that 19 out of 41 facilities have not been upgraded due to shortages in manpower required for running new facilities and departments in these colleges.

The scheme envisions the upgrading of existing state government medical colleges, apart from setting up AIIMS.

By Rahil

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