Maha cabinet okays plan to upgrade hospital in Nagpur

In a move that will benefit the health care sector in central India, the Maharashtra Cabinet today approved upgrading the Nagpur-based Dr B R Ambedkar Hospital and Research Centre and start a post-graduate course and super-speciality institute there.
At present, Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Research Centre provides only OPD facility to patients in Nagpur. The upgradation, which includes 568 bed hospital, will help patients from nearby areas of neighbouring states as well.
Officials said since the hospital is situated in west Nagpur, which has a sizable scheduled caste population of more than 40 per cent, development works can be undertaken from the scheduled caste sub-plan. Nagpur's population is now more than 26 lakh and was on the rise.

The social justice department will provide Rs 209 crore for upgradation of the medical facility and for the next five years, the provision would be made from the scheduled caste sub plan, officials said.
The medical institution can avail 29,079 sq meters area and 49,693 sq meters construction is proposed.
The cabinet also decided to bring out an ordinance regarding allowing homoeopathy practitioners to practise allopathy. The decision has already been taken and the ordinance will pave the way for implementation of the decision. Homoeopathy practitioners will have to undergo a one year certificate course before they can prescribe allopathy drugs.

Similarly, the government has decided to continue with the Samruddha Gram Yojana scheme for creating environment awareness and made provision of Rs 300 crore.
The scheme was started in 2010-11 and so far 11,448 gram panchayats out of the total 27,891 could not participate in the scheme because they did not fulfil the criteria of development keeping in mind environmental concerns. The government plans to involve industrialists and owners of sugar co-operatives as part of their corporate social responsibility in the scheme.