Bihar Health Minister announces two new medical colleges in Motihari, Munger

Health Minister Mangal Pandey has announced two new medical colleges at Motihari and Munger.

In the Bihar assembly, Health Minister Mangal Pandey made three major announcements including the purchase of 1,000 ambulances for public use on-demand, coverage of all the ration card-holding families of the below poverty line (BPL) category under the Centre's Ayushman Bharat (AB) scheme and opening of two new medical colleges at Motihari and Munger with student intake capacity of 150 each for MBBS courses.

He said that by the extension of the AB scheme to the ration card-holding families of the BPL category under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), the families covered under the scheme would increase to 85% of the total families in the state, as reported by TOI.

Ayushman Bharat beneficiary families to get INR 5 lakh per annum coverage

AB scheme gives an annual coverage of INR 5 lakh to the beneficiary families. The extension of this scheme to the ration card-holding BPL will require an additional annual cost of INR 125 crore, said the Health Minister.

He also talked about how the Bihar government tackled the Covid 19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021 in an effective and efficient way with a long term perspective and focus on continued testing of the new cases and treatment of the Covid-19 patients.

He said that 51 doctors, seven ASHA workers and 15 medical personnel had died during the Covid-19 pandemic and the state government provided an ex-gratia of INR 50 lakh each to their kin.

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