Sonia laments deficient health facilities in rural areas

Rae Bareli, UP, Oct 18 (UNI) United Progresive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi today expressed concern over the lack of health facilities in rual areas in proportion to population.

Inaugurating a three-day 'health mela' at Lalganj in her parliamentary constituency, Ms Gandhi said it was sad health facilities in rural areas were not adequate as compared to population in such areas. ''Under such circumstances, the relevance of such events (health melas) assumes greater importance,'' she added.

The AICC president claimed while the mortality rate had decreased, the health of children had shown improvement compared to the past. ''Our government wants to provide more facilities through the rural healthcare mission...to improve upon the services, the government has implemented various projects,'' she noted.

In her address, Ms Gandhi also announced setting up of a nursing college in Rae Bareli and said the district would shortly have facilities such as a trauma centre and tele-medicine conferencing.

Mentioning about the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), the MP said while the funds were provided by the Cemtre, it was upto the state governments to implement the scheme.

Addressing the gathering, Union Health minister Anbumani Ramdoss said it was Ms Gandhi's idea to organise the health mela at Rae Bareli for the benefit of the common man.

''It was the aim of the central government to extend health care facilities to every corner of the state for which various schemes are underway.'' UNI XC-NAB VS VD HT1810