Patna, Feb. 12: The state’s share under National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) could double up from the next financial year as the Twelfth Five Year Plan (2012-2017) gets underway.
The state might get Rs 2,100-2,200 crore in 2012-2013 under the central government scheme despite having a poor funds utilisation record. This fiscal, the state was allocated Rs 1,098 crore.
Health secretary Sanjay Kumar told The Telegraph: “The Centre has hinted that the NRHM funds to be allocated to the state would double from the next financial year.”
Kumar said: “At present, the Centre allocates 1 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) to the health sector. It is set to be increased to 2 per cent during the Twelfth Five Year Plan, meaning a greater health budget for us. Bihar is expected to get double the money under the NRHM as the next five-year plan gets underway.”
Admitting that spending the money would be a big challenge, the officer said: “At present, the state’s total utilisation of the NRHM funds has been hovering around 60-68 per cent. The state would require better financial management, technical capacity, trained manpower and upgrade of existing health infrastructure to ensure better implementation of the national health schemes.”
Kumar, who also heads Bihar State Health Society — responsible for receiving, managing and disbursing the NRHM funds, said: “We could not use the NRHM funds properly because of severe shortage of skilled personnel and gaps in physical infrastructure.”
The state has so far spent only Rs 600 crore of the total NRHM funds this financial year. A health department official said 80-85 per cent of the amount would be spent by March end this year. In 2010-11, the state could utilise only 67 per cent of the total funds.
The NRHM funds are categorised under several heads, including reproductive and child health (RCH) flexipool, national disease control programme, health infrastructure, human resource, united funds as well as annual maintenance grants and Rogi Kalyan Samiti (RKS).
Since April 2005, the state has received Rs 4,500 crore under the scheme. The average annual expenditure has been around 68 per cent.
The activities undertaken through the NRHM include upgrade of the health infrastructure, RCH programmes, routine immunisation, setting up of RKS, providing referral and emergency transport, waste management and treatment in government health facilities and national disease control programmes.
The Centre and the state’s partnership in terms of the financial outlay of the NRHM is 85:15.
Officials in the health department claimed that Bihar never defaulted in contributing its share to the NRHM budget.
