Nitish’s jibe: Some states do little, but advertise big
CM says Bihar was giving compensation of ₹4 lakh for each Covid death
We do our work, don’t get into publicity
NITISH KUMAR, Bihar CM
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday inaugurated a slew of health schemes and hospital projects worth ₹2,705.35 crore and took a swipe at states giving little compensation for Covid-19 deaths but doing a huge publicity about it.
Speaking on the occasion, Kumar said some states were giving only ₹50,000 as compensation and coming up with newspaper advertisements, whereas Bihar was giving a onetime compensation of ₹4 lakh since the beginning of the first wave of the pandemic, but did not advertise in the media.
The CM then directed his officials to upload the work done by the health department on the social media, by putting it in perspective of what the situation was in 2005 (when he took over the reins of Bihar) and the progress the state had made now.
Kumar also asked his officials to scale up Covid-19 tests to 2 lakh per day. He said from performing 20,000 Covid-19 tests a day during the first wave, the state had crossed 1.70 lakh tests in a single day.
The state administered 2.74 crore doses of Covid-19 vaccine by August 8 against a target to inoculate an adult population of 7.22 crore by December.
Health minister Mangal Pandey, referring to the oxygen crisis during the second wave of the pandemic, said 122 oxygen generation plants would be ready by August 31 at different hospitals and subdivisional hospitals in the state.
Deputy chief ministers Tarkishore Prasad and Renu Devi also spoke on the occasion.
Among the projects the CM graced through virtual mode were the foundation stone laying ceremony of a 1,200-bed and a 500-bed hospital at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS), inauguration of a state cancer institute at the institute, eSanjeevani OPD (tele-consultation with doctor from home) and eSanjeevani.in module (visiting any of the 2,319 designated health sub-centres and talking through virtual mode to medical officers and getting medicines prescribed by them).
Commending the role of “Jeevika didis” (women’s selfhelp group), the CM also extended “Didi Ki Rasoi” (canteen for in-patients) to 32 other district and subdivisional hospitals in the state.
The canteens aim to provide quality and nutritious breakfast and meals to in-patients for a package rate of Rs 150 per day per patient, and the government bears its cost. The service was earlier confined to seven district hospitals and one subdivisional hospital.