The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Abdul Kalam calls for national mission to save lives

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Thursday, Aug 16, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Abdul Kalam calls for national mission to save lives

108/104 services, Health Insurance Scheme brought under one umbrella

EMRI lauded for having saved 14,000 lives
Good model for others to emulate, says Dr. Kalam

- PHOTO: Satish H.

august gathering: Former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam dedicating EMRI’s 108 emergency services to the State in Hyderabad on Wednesday. Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy and Chairman of Satyam Computers Ramalinga Raju look on.

HYDERABAD: Former President A. P. J. Abdul Kalam has called for putting in place a decentralised national emergency management mission on the lines of 108 in Andhra Pradesh to save lives in critical situations like road accidents.

Speaking at a function where the free 108 emergency services were dedicated by the Government to every citizen of Andhra Pradesh on the occasion of 60th Independence Day on Wednesday, he lauded Emergency Management Research Institute (EMRI) for having saved 14,000 lives during the last two-and-half years and said it was a good model of public-private partnership for the rest of the country to emulate.

The event also saw bringing EMRI’s 108, along with 104 services from Health Management Research Institute and the Health Insurance Scheme under a single umbrella -- ‘Rajiv Arogya Sri’ -- with the aim of providing quality health care to all. The Government also decided to fund up to 95 per cent of operational expenses for 108 services.

Unveils logo

Declaring that the aim should be to save a million lives in the next two years, Dr. Kalam said the national mission could be decentralised on a Statewide basis. It could be either jointly sponsored by the Centre and State or by the public and private sector or through private-public partnership mode as executed in Andhra Pradesh.

He also unveiled the logo of Rajiv Arogya Sri.

Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy said that as a result of the EMRI initiative, every emergency call in the State was being responded to in 18 to 20 minutes. Referring to the three services being brought under one umbrella, he said that 55,000 health volunteers, who were appointed, would also cater to the 104 services which offer medical counselling on telephone.

Finance Minister K. Rosaiah said that apart from health insurance, Government had released Rs.192 crore under the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund to the needy.

B. Ramalinga Raju, chairman Satyam Computers, said the 108 services were an exemplary demonstration of public-private partnership. He said that HMRI was started to help poor people. It would also facilitate on-line appointments.

CEO EMRI, Venkat Changavalli said that 3.5 lakh emergencies were attended to so far among the 6.5 million calls received by EMRI. CEO HMRI U. Balaji also spoke.

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