Hyderabad: With the new financial year beginning on April 1, Telangana finance minister T Harish Rao on Tuesday announced new improvements in the Department of Medical Health (DMH). He also stated that this move will help SC/ST communities progress.
Harish Rao said that 16 per cent of diet and sanitation contracts in the DMH have been reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SC/ST) citizens. Addressing the media at the Koti Directorate of Medical Education (DME) office, the minister said that the state government under chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao was striving to provide SC/ST citizens with more opportunities to progress.
Previously, sanitation contracts allotted Rs 5000 per hospital bed, but from now on, Rs 7500 would be allotted per bed to increase quality of service. Because of this, the government has decided to put the tenders up for sale, informed the minister. “We have also doubled the diet contracts. Previously, Rs 40 were allotted per patient for daily meals. Today, the CM has increased it to Rs 80 per day per patient,” the finance minister stated.
He added that daily cost of meals for those with serious illnesses has also been increased from Rs 56 to Rs 102. Harish Rao said that 56 SC/ST entrepreneurs would be getting contracts for diet and sanitation works, and that Earnest Money Deposits (EMD) and conditions for filing tenders would be relaxed for them.
The minister also added that because of government order (GO) 59, all works departments like irrigation, R&B, Panchayat Raj, have seen 21 per cent reservation made for SC/ST citizens. He further added that they were considering introducing a reservation quota in applications for setting up of medical shops.
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