Union Minister of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) Dr Jitendra Singh has reviewed the COVID status and healthcare facility in Aspirational districts with special focus on North East. He also disclosed that in the wake of COVID pandemic, Ministry of DoNER has decided to sanction 190 crore rupees  for augmentation of healthcare facility in the eight North Eastern States, particularly for developing infrastructure for management of infectious diseases.

Addressing a Virtual meeting, attended by the Health Secretaries as well as Deputy Commissioners and Health officials of the 14 Aspirational districts of Northeast, Dr  Singh said, the concept of Aspirational District was based on 49 key indicators, of which the status of healthcare was an important component. Dr Singh said that an important experience from the COVID pandemic is that in future, pre-emptive preparedness for epidemic and infection was imperative for optimum healthcare. Considering this, he said, the Ministry of DoNER has given the North Eastern States the option to send proposals for health related projects to be funded up to over 500 crore rupees from North East Special Infrastructure Development Scheme.

He said, accordingly, proposals have been received from the States of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Sikkim, Mizoram and Nagaland, while the proposal from the eighth State of Tripura is awaited. Dr Singh also complemented the Aspirational Districts of Goalpara and Dhubri in Assam for having achieved Ayushman Bharat coverage of nearly 100 and 85 per cent.