Punjab Presents Historic, Public-friendly Budget: Dr Yasmin

Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid on Monday said the Punjab government had presented a historic and public friendly budget according to the needs of the people

LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 14th Jun, 2021 ) :Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid on Monday said the Punjab government had presented a historic and public friendly budget according to the needs of the people.

In a statement while giving her reaction, she said that Prime Minister Imran Khan and Chief Minister Punjab Sardar Usman Buzdar had won the hearts of the people with this great budget.

She said that previous governments never provided relief to common man while the PTI government had provided relief to the public by cutting down its own expenses.

She said the government believed in spending public money on public welfare.

"The allocation of Rs 370 billion for health is a great gift from the Prime Minister," she said.

She said the government had provided Rs 106 billion of relief package for COVID-19 whereas the development budget had been increased by 182 per cent with Rs. 96 billion compared to the last year.

She said that an amount of Rs. 80 billion had been earmarked for Universal Health Insurance Program.

"The entire population of Punjab will be provided free of cost quality healthcare facilities and under this program, more than 110 million population of the province will be provided with quality insurance," the minister said. She said that development budget of Rs. 78 billion had been proposed for the Specialized Healthcare and Medical education Department.

Children Hospital Paeds burn center, 1000-bedded General Hospital, 200 bedded Mother and Child Hospital Multan, and CT Scan machine installation at Nishter Hospital were among the key projects for the SH&ME Department, she said.

"In Rajanpur, Layyah, Attock, Bahawalnagar and Sialkot, state of the art mother and child hospitals will be established with Rs. 24 billion," she added.

The Minister said that proposal of Rs. 19 billion development budget had been tabled for Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department.

She said Rs. 6 billion would be spent on a special program for upgradation of 119 THQ hospitals and revamping while DHQs would be established in Chiniot, Hafizabad and Chakwal with a budget of Rs. 16.6 billion.

She said that an amount of Rs. 11 billion had been earmarked for preventive programs like HIV/AIDs, Hepatitis and similar diseases. The Health Minister said that overall, 36 BHUs were being upgraded to RHCs.

She said that a special amount of Rs. 10 billion had been reserved for Corona vaccination of entire population of Punjab. An amount of Rs. 35.25 billion had been reserved for provision of medicines in hospitals, she added. She said that trauma centers were being set up with a cost of Rs. 3.5 billion in 14 cities.