UP government slashed medical education budget by 50%

LUCKNOW: As the death of 23 children in a single day in Gorakhpur's Baba Raghav Das Medical College (BRDMC) grabs national headlines, a sharp cut by the Yogi Adityanath government in the budgetary allocation for medical education this year is raising questions. That's because this is the head under which the BRDMC, like other state-run colleges, receives funds.

The budgetary allocation for 14 such medical colleges and their associated teaching hospitals has been pared to less than half from Rs 2,344 crore in 2016-17 to Rs 1,148 crore for 2017-18. The allocation for BRDMC followed the pattern, plunging from Rs 15.9 crore in 2016-17 to Rs 7.8 crore for 2017-18. More specifically , its allocation for machines equipment was slashed from Rs 3 crore to just Rs 75 lakh.

The budgetary allocation fell across all medical colleges. For example, the medical colleges in Kanpur and Allahabad saw their allocations come down from Rs 15.9 crore each to Rs 3.3 crore and Rs 4.2 crore, respectively.

The government has focused more on converting hospitals into medical colleges, for which the budgetary allocation has been raised from Rs 66.5 crore to Rs 515 crore. The Akhilesh Yadav government had been allocating higher funds for revamping existing medical colleges and hospitals, besides proposing new medical colleges ­ like the ones in Jaunpur and Bijnor.

A look at the allocations for the medical education department over the last few years shows a steady increase between 2012-13 and 2014-15, just before the Lok Sabha elections. This was also the time the previous government proposed setting up of a 500-bed paediatric institute in BRDMC. After the LS elections, the allocation for the department in 2015-16 fell drastically but rose again in the next year when assembly elections were due.

When contacted, medical education minister Ashutosh Tandon said the cut in the funds for medical colleges would be compensated in the supplementary budget which is expected to be tabled later this year. "For the time being, the department has enough funds to carry out essential services in the state medical colleges," he told TOI. Sources in CM office said the state government was planning to examine funds spent on medical education projects in past years. "This is likely after chief secretary Rajive Kumar submits inquiry report on cause of death of children and also the reason for oxygen supply shortage," a senior official told TOI.