Telangana: Healthcare budget gets Rs 100-crore infra boost to fight Covid

Hyderabad: Budget allocation for the Health department was increased by Rs 109 crore compared to the last year's Rs 6,186 crore allocated in 2020-21. Presenting the budget in the State Assembly on Thursday, Finance Minister T Harish Rao announced that Rs 6,295 crore was being allocated for the health sector.

He said the budget has been raised to improve the infrastructure to control corona in the State. He said the increased budget will help the health sector to work uninterrupted.

Elaborating the budget sanctioned last year, Rao stated that the government had spent large amounts during the pandemic for various purposes and dealt with corona successfully.

A dedicated medical facility centre, Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences (TIMS), was established at Gachibowli in a short span of time to facilitate treatment of Covid cases. Isolation centres and ICUs with ventilators were also arranged with all facilities.

Moreover, he said,1,200 Covid test centres across the State were set up to increase tests. The sample testing was made easy and the tests were conducted in Hyderabad itself, earlier sample testing was done at the National Institute of virology, Pune.

Earlier, 2.11 lakh tests were carried out for 10 lakh population in the State.

Speaking about the hardship of the poor during the lockdown, Rao said 12 kg per head ration was distributed in the State for three months and Rs 1,500 transferred to the accounts of ration card holders incurring an expenditure of Rs 2,455 crore.

As many as 6.48 lakh migrant labourers were given an expenditure of Rs 107 crore. The government had arranged Shramik trains to send the migrants to their hometowns, spending Rs 17 crore.