Times of India
18 June 2010
Lucknow, India

The UP government has decided to drop its plan for privatisation of government hospitals and prepapre its own model for strengthening of medicare facilities in the state.

Notably, the government, earlier decided to rope in private players for strengthening the infrastructure and medical facilities at government hospitals. Under the plan, four districts were selected for this purpose where district hospitals and community health centres and primary dispensaries at block levels were proposed to be handed over to private developers. These four districts were Firozabad, Basti, Kanpur and Allahabad.

Since there was no progress on this front in the absence of lacklustre response from private developers, the CM was not happy with the plan. She pulled up health department officials and decided to put off the plan immediately. “Instead of going for privatisation, the government should make its own model to improve the working of hospitals and primary dispensaries instead of depending on private developers,” she said.

The chief minister said that all the hospitals should be equipped with X-ray machines and oth7er modern gadgets so that people living in remote areas could also get the benefit of government hospitals. She also said that special measures should be taken to deal with contagious and infectious diseases in view of the impending monsoon season.

With regard to power situation, she said nearly 7000 to 8000 mw of power was being made available in the state at present. Although this was 25% to 30% more than previous years’ generation, the situation was far from satisfactory, she said, adding that for this concerted efforts were needed to be made. “If powermen did not come up to the expectations, they would have to face severe consequences,” she cautioned.

She said UP’s power generation would touch 4000 mw by 2012, 14,000 mw by 2014 and 25,000 mw by 2017. This was on the basis of a roadmap made by the government after planning a series of new power plants in the state. She said private developers had shown interest in the power sector and as a result the government had been able to sign MoU for power projects with a total capacity of 5000 mw and similar other proposals were also under examination.

As for improving power distribution system, she said private players had already been selected for the distribution of power in Agra. This would bring about a qualitative change in the system and plug the leakage and theft. In the next two years, an investment of Rs 10,000 crore was proposed in the power distribution sector. Of it, Rs 8,000 crore would be spent by private developers and Rs 2,000 crore by the power distribution corporation, she said.

CM annoyed but power officials brag about achievements
Lucknow: Even as chief minister Mayawati pulled up power officials for lacklustre performance in checking instances of power theft, the information department was quick to issue a press release stating the achievements of the power department.

While the CM expressed displeasure during a review meeting held on Wednesday evening, the press release stated that power corporation managed to punish over 3500 consumers across the state within a period of two months — April and May.

The release said that the vigilance squad cracked down on 8923 consumers during surprise raids. It added that FIR was lodged against 1396 consumers while connections of another 2879 consumers were snapped. In all, an estimate of Rs 17.81 crore was prepared, while around Rs 4.55 crore was recovered on the spot.