Manipur Governor Dr Najma Heptulla has informed that the implementation of the much awaited air-dispensary service will be undertaken by Union Health Ministry in collaboration with the Civil Aviation Ministry by formulating the necessary ground rules.
Governor Dr Heptulla said she had raised the matter in the recently concluded North Eastern Council (NEC) meeting in Shillong and expressed her desire to complete the pending projects on priority basis in the region.
The Governor conveyed this responding to a question on the implementation of the air-dispensary in the State during a press conference at Raj Bhavan in Imphal on Sunday afternoon.
It may be worth mentioning here that Dr Heptulla has been speaking about the introduction of flying doctors through air-dispensary as done in other developed countries for the needy patients in far-flung remote areas.
Last year, she had even announced that the Union Civil Aviation Minister is ready to allocate Rs 25 crore to introduce helicopter services.
Dr Heptulla was sharing what she had raised and discussed during the NEC, a regional planning body of eight north-eastern states held in Shillong on July 9 during the day’s press conference.
The NEC meeting chaired by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh discussed some of the major issues such as transformation of several districts in the region, strengthening livelihood programmes, water resources management, catchment area treatment through afforestation, doubling farmers’ income by 2022 and road connectivity among others.
She added that she was very vocal about the issues of the State and as a result those who were in the point of abandoning some projects of the State, decided to improve the infrastructures for the State.
On Friday, DG Assam Rifles Lieutenant General Sukhdeep Sangwan had even complemented the State Governor for portraying Manipur in a befitting manner in the recently concluded NEC meeting.
Stating that her focus is on the issues of development because the State has suffered a lot due to blockades and bandhs, she said the State was not given a good share of money and she asked for more within the NEC.
Among the eight states in the north-eastern region, seven are small and face similar problems.
“The money distribution should not be based on the size and population of the states because we cannot match Assam. The parameter for the distribution of the money should be based on developmental index,” the Manipur Governor had said.
The Governor also said she had brought up the issue of dying Loktak Lake, which is a thing to be concerned about as tourism of the State is dependent on Loktak.
And more focus should be given on infrastructures and roads because the State is landlocked and added that she is going to pursue on more and more issues related with our landlocked state.
She added that the vendors of Ima Market, the biggest women run market are not aware of central schemes.
She also mentioned that the Home Ministry has agreed to translate the literatures of all the central government schemes into local languages so that the people can be aware about the schemes meant for them.