Jharkhand will have four out of the 58 proposed hospitals to be set up in the country, Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh said today.
"In the next three years 58 hospitals are coming up in the country, four of which will be set up in Jharkhand. Development of the state is our priority," Ramesh said in Medininagar, headquarters town of Palamau district.
Ramesh, who is expected to inaugurate a 100-bed hospital in the district this year, said 150 seats were increased in medical college hospitals in the state and praised the Kashyap Memorial Eye Bank (KMEB), a charitable unit of Kashyap Memorial Eye Hospital, for continuing free eye camps across the state over the years.
"It is for the first time I am seeing such a big camp (at the Giriwar High School here) being organised," said Ramesh, who had inaugurated such camps in Latehar and West Singhbhum districts last year.
The eye camps are being organised with an aim to reduce blindness rate from 0.8 per cent to 0.3 per cent in the country, Dr Bharati Kashyap, Medical Director and the Chief Executive Officer of the KMEB, said in her speech.
"With this mega eye camp, an initiative inspired by Jairam Ramesh to treat patients in rural Jharkhand, has assumed a form of campaign and will continue till all the districts are covered," Bharati said.
She claimed 28 per cent blindness could be reduced by Vitamin A supplements. 15 per cent could be reduced after treatment and to reduce the remaining 57 per cent, proper precaution was required.
Congress MLA K N Tripathi, Secretary of the state Rural Development, S K Satapathi, Palamau Deputy Commissioner Manoj Kumar and Palamau Superintendent of Police Narendra Kumar Singh and several other senior officials and doctors were present on the occasion.
