CAG criticises Arunachal health department

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has criticised the health department of Arunachal Pradesh for lack of strategic plan for long term health care requirement of the state and roadmap to create the required infrastructure and facilities needed.
According to the latest CAG report which was tabled in the state Assembly on September 23, deployment of available manpower in the department was not rational as there was excess deployment at hospitals in urban areas depriving the rural population of other districts from proper health care services.
During 2007 to 2012, the department could not spend the allocated funds and the total unspent provisions under plan expenditure during the period were Rs 32.13 crore, the report said.

Bio-medical waste plants in six districts of the state were yet to be operational and bio-medical waste were disposed off in unscientific manner, the report pointed out and added that the objective of tele-consultation and dissemination of information, which could have benefited patients in peripheral and rural hospitals, could not be achieved as machinery and equipment worth Rs 4.52 crore for setting up of the telemedicine system were lying idle.
"Several equipment remained idle as the same were purchased without providing the complement infrastructure and manpower required for their functioning," the report said.
Moreover, the department incurred avoidable expenditure of Rs 70.06 lakh on procurement of medicines and inadequate facilities resulted in unhygienic storage of drugs and medicines in hospitals and other health units.

Medicines were distributed and utilised by hospitals and other health units without carrying out quality testing.

The two drug de-addiction centers in Lohit district remained non-functional even after incurring huge expenditure on their establishment for want of trained manpower, the report said.
The state government with an aim to eradicate the menace of drug addiction rampant in the district, set up two de-addiction centers at Tezu and Lathao.
The Tezu centre was established during 2000-2001 with central assistance of Rs 8 lakh. The Lathao centre, established way back in 1970-71, has been used as primary health centre (PHC).
"An estimated Rs 3.5 crore was proposed for improvement of infrastructure in the Lathao centre during 2008 and accordingly the first phase installment of Rs 1.3 crore was released in the same year under SPA (special plan assistance).

However, the centre was handed over to the department by water resource development (WRD) department, the construction agency, in March 2010 and since then it was lying idle for non-deployment of trained manpower," the report added.