The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Needy to get more from Chief Minister’s Relief Fund

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Oct 05, 2007
ePaper

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Needy to get more from Chief Minister’s Relief Fund

Staff Reporter

‘Nephro-urology unit is the first of its kind to be set up by a State Government’

Rs. 15-cr. project was completed in 12 months
The institute has 18 dialysis units

— Photo: Sampath Kumar G.P.

Laudable initiative: Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy at the inauguration of the Institute of Nephro-Urology in Bangalore on Thursday.

BANGALORE: Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy has claimed that more than Rs. 25 crore has been disbursed from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund to the poor and the needy during his tenure.

Inaugurating the Institute of Nephro-Urology (INU) on the premises of Victoria Hospital here on Thursday, Mr. Kumaraswamy said that the proposal to open the institute in the building, which housed the Jayadeva Institute of Cardiology earlier, had come up before him several times and he had approved it as many poor people were in need of surgery and treatment.

He also said that he had decided to increase the amount given to needy persons. “I found that people in need of heart surgery or renal care were being given only between Rs. 5,000 and Rs. 10,000, which is a pittance. As such, I decided that the minimum amount should anywhere between Rs. 50,000 and Rs. 1 lakh,” Mr. Kumaraswamy said.

Affordable cost

Now, with the opening of the institute, dialysis and treatment for kidney-related problems would be affordable to the poor, he added.

“The only reason that I became the Chief Minister was to make a sincere effort to make life better for the poor and the oppressed. I seek the people’s blessings. The office is of no consequence to me,” Mr. Kumaraswamy said. Minister for Public Works and Energy H.D. Revanna said that the Rs. 15-crore project, which had been pending since the time of the S.M. Krishna Government, was cleared and completed within 12 months.

He claimed that the credit for drafting a Rs.150-crore health infrastructure plan, for which a matching grant was received from the Union Government, should go to the present Government.

Mr. Revanna hoped that institute director G.K. Venkatesh’s plans to have nephro-urology centres in all districts would become a reality soon.

Chamarajpet MLA Zameer Ahmed said that the INU was the first of its kind in the country to be started by a State Government.

He urged Mr. Kumaraswamy to open an emergency heart care institute on the Victoria Hospital premises.

Stating that Mr. Kumaraswamy had achieved more within 20 months than his predecessors,

Mr. Ahmed said that Mr. Kumaraswamy should not give up his post at any cost, as he was the “only saviour of the poor, the minorities and the underprivileged”.

Dr. Venkatesh said that Karnataka had around two lakh people with renal failure apart from a large number of people with other nephro-urology related diseases.

The state-of-the-art institute is equipped with six modern operation theatres.

It also has a full-fledged ICU, special and general wards and 18 dialysis units, could perform renal transplants, apart from minor surgeries, endoscopy and laparoscopy.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Karnataka