Patna, March 2: Health minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey said the state government would enforce the Central Organ Transplant Act soon to facilitate kidney transplant in Bihar. He was responding to a question by Vinod Narayan Jha of the BJP in the Assembly today.

Jha complained that there was no facility of getting a kidney transplant done in Bihar, as the state had not framed the rules under the act.

Choubey said the facility to perform a kidney transplant operation was being built in IGIMS. “The rules are in the process of being framed and after it is approved by the cabinet it will be enforced soon,” he said.

He added that the rules would be amended to ensure that poor patients suffering from serious ailments get government aid for treatment.

In another question raised by JD(U) MLA Manjit Kumar Singh, the health minister assured that over 200 primary health centres (PHCs) in the state will be upgraded to 30-bed hospitals by the end of this fiscal. He added that the building construction department had been given the funds for the upgrade of the 201 PHCs and the detailed project report of another 62 was awaited.

The JD(U) MLA had pointed out that the upgrade of PHCs had been pending from 2006 and the sum of over Rs 339 crore had been approved by the state government in the financial year 2007-08.

He said that since the estimates for the upgrade of the primary health centres were taken in 2006, the estimates would have to be revived for the same in 2012.