Healthcare in focus in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh

Healthcare has emerged as the latest election issue in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh as Prime Minister Narendra Modi chose to unveil the mission to strengthen health infrastructure across the country from Varanasi.

The temple town, Modi's Lok Sabha constituency, falls in eastern Uttar Pradesh – a region often in the news for inadequate healthcare facilities and outbreaks of diseases such as Japanese Encephalitis.

The Pradhan Mantri Ayushmaan Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission, launched by Modi in Varanasi on Monday, is aimed at filling critical gaps in public health infrastructure, especially in critical care facilities and primary care in both the urban and rural areas.

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In anticipation of the big-bang launch, AICC General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra announced free medical treatment of upto Rs 10 lakh to the people of Uttar Pradesh if the Congress is voted to power in the assembly elections next month.

“Everyone saw the dilapidated condition of the health system of UP due to government neglect during the Corona period and now during the spread of fever. For ensuring good and cheap treatment, with the consent of the manifesto committee, the UP Congress has decided that if voted to power, our government will provide up to Rs 10 lakh for treatment of any disease,” Gandhi said in a tweet in Hindi.

The Central initiative will provide support for 17,788 rural health and wellness centres in 10 High Focus States. In addition, 11,024 urban health and wellness centres will be established in all the states.

Congress has been targeting the Yogi Adityanath government's handling of the Covid-19 situation in Uttar Pradesh as also on the creaking health infrastructure in the state.

Congress had finished fourth in the Uttar Pradesh assembly election in 2017, winning just seven seats in the 403-member state assembly.

Under Priyanka's leadership, Congress is making efforts to emerge as the key opposition in the state where regional parties – SP and BSP had been calling the shots for the past couple of decades.

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