NEW DELHI: The health sector has received the second highest hike in allocation in the budget estimates for 2006-07 presented in Parliament on Tuesday by Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram. A sum of Rs. 12,546 crore has been earmarked for the health and family welfare in the coming financial year, of which Rs. 8,207 crore will be spent on the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM).

The Government also proposes to reduce customs duty on 10 anti-AIDS drugs and 14 anti-cancer drugs to 5 per cent. Customs duty on certain life-saving drugs, kits and equipment may also be reduced from 15 per cent to 5 per cent.

These drugs will also be exempt from excise duty and countervailing duty (CVD).

Launched in April last year to provide health care in rural areas with special focus on 18 States, the NRHM was allocated Rs. 6,553 crore in the current fiscal. The main aim of the Mission is to provide accessible, affordable, accountable, effective and reliable primary health care facilities, particularly to the poor and vulnerable.

Mr. Chidambaram hoped that more than 200,000 Associated Social Health Activists (ASHAs) would be fully functional in 2006-07 and over 1,000 block-level community health centres would provide round-the clock services. The programmes covered under the NRHM scheme include the National Disease Control Programme, Reproductive and Child Health Project, Routine Immunisation, population projects and the National AIDS Control Organisation.

The ambitious National AIDS Control Programme will receive Rs. 636.67 crore in the next financial year as against Rs. 476.50 crore received last year. For establishing AIIMS-type super-speciality hospitals-cum-teaching institutions and upgrading State Government Hospitals, the Finance Ministry has earmarked Rs. 75 crore as against Rs. 250 crore last year, of which only Rs. 6 crore were utilised.

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