Centre cuts budget for cancer control scheme to ₹36.06cr

EXPERTS SAID THAT NCPT IS ONE OF MANY PROGRAMMES THAT TOOK A FALL OWING TO DIVERSION OF FUNDS TO LARGER SCHEMES SUCH AS PRADHAN MANTRI JAN AAROGYA YOJANA

MUMBAI: The Central government has reduced the budget for programmes, which are aimed at reducing tobacco consumption, to ₹36.06 crore in 2018-19 from ₹123.56 crore in 2017-18.

Husain Dalwai, Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha, had raised the question regarding the disparity of funds allocated for the National Tobacco Control Programme (NTCP) in the Upper House on February 5.

The NTCP is a national programme to create awareness about the harmful effects of tobacco use and implementation of tobacco control laws.

Maharashtra, which is ranked first in terms of a decrease in cigarette consumption across India, has used only 20% of its allotted funds for implementation of NTCP in the last four years. Of the total ₹16.51 crore allotted for the state’s NTCP during 2015-16 to 2018-19, only ₹3.38 crore has been utilised.

Dr Sadhna Tayade, joint director health (non-communicable diseases), Maharashtra, said they are not facing any fund crunch because of a reduced NTCP budget.

“In fact, there is never a delay or shortage of funds from the Central health ministry. On the other hand, lack of optimum fund utilisation must have been due to delays in some plans such as the hiring of medical consultants but we have resolved the issues and from this year on, the funds will be utilised completely,” said Tayade.

Experts said that NCPT is one of many programmes that took a fall due to the diversion of funds to larger schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojana (PMJAY).

“The insurance scheme is necessary but this is privatisation of resources where you are not investing in the prevention of cancer and claim to offer cancer care under the garb of insurance,” said Abhijeet More of Jan Aarogya Abhiyan — a consortium of health activists in Maharashtra.

Tayade said that Maharashtra is ranked number one in the country in terms of decrease in smoking tobacco consumption but needs to work on smokeless tobacco consumption.

“There is a considerable decline in both forms of tobacco consumption, which shows effective implementation of NTCP,” said Tayade.