Guwahati: Assam health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday said 90 per cent delivery cases in the state is done in government hospitals.

"This year, 6 lakh women had their deliveries in government hospitals. When I became health minister for the first time in 2006, the number was 1.5 lakh," Sarma told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting, organised to confer awards on hospitals and provide ex gratia to the families of health and education department employees here.

He said outpatient and inpatients departments of the government hospitals register 3 crore and 1 crore patients respectively a year. "These imply that the state health sector is improving," he added.

Reacting to Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG)'s report on non-submission of utilisation certificates by the health department, Sarma said he was yet to go through the report. The CAG report said as on March 2017, the state health department was to submit 295 utilisation certificates worth Rs 2,408.94 crore, the third highest among all departments. The first on the list is the education department, another portfolio held by Sarma, which was to submit 4,569 utilisation certificates worth Rs 3,473.68 crore.

"But this should not be true. This year, the health department has received Rs 19,000 crore from the Centre which was more than other departments. Earlier, the amount was Rs 12,000 crore. If we had our utilisation certificates pending, the Centre would not have given us so much money," he said.

Sarma distributed financial assistance of Rs 5 lakh each to the next of kin of 110 National Health Mission workers, 64 Sarba Siksha Abhiyan employees, including 34 TET teachers and two from the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan, who died in harness.

"We had announced in the budget to give one-time financial assistance to them. This is a small gesture of acknowledgement to the service of these employees," he said.

Sarma conferred the Kayakalp awards on 47 hospitals from 18 districts for cleanliness, hygiene and infection-control practices.