AND NOW, HEALTH BOSSES PLAN TO SEEK DONATIONS!
by Debashis Konar

The Times of India
June 6, 2004

Finally, the state health system may just have the right survival kit

The state government’s health department is now all set to go on an
overdrive to collect donations to develop the health system in the
state. To make the process of collection of donations smooth, the
newly set up West Bengal State Health and Welfare Samiti (WBSHWS)
has decided to go for a change in its constitutional bylaws.

The WBSHWS has been formed clubbing all the disease control
programmes in the state for better monitoring of all the disease
control programmes. But it was unable to accept donations for not
having the status of an entity eligible to provide income tax rebate
to the donors. During WBSHWS’s first annual general meeting held
last Wednesday, the state health minister, Dr Surya Kanta Mishra,
ratified the requisite norms so that the Samiti can collect funds and
function in a better way. Dr Mishra said that the main objective of
the Samiti was to go for various disease control measure in a more
effective manner. “The funds from foreign donors couldn’t be properly
utilised due to certain norms. Now ratification of the norms will
enable the state health department to receive grants easily.”

A senior health department officer said that earlier the Samiti could
not accept grants of the Armenian Church and the Japanese Consulate.
The Armenian Church had offered to donate a sum of Rs 50 lakhs and the
Japanese Consulate had offered Rs 40 lakhs. According to him, the state
health department is planning to approach various international donors
for funds for various health projects. The ratification paves the way
for the Samiti to accept grant from individuals, various organisations,
and even from the foreign agencies and foreign governments. The health
department is already planning to accept grants from GTZ, a German
organisation, for improving the health infrastructure in the state. The
state health department had earlier taken a World Bank loan of Rs 700
crores for developing the hospitals in the state, which is going to
slow down in September. “So the state health minister is seeking for
alternate sources of funding to run various disease control projects,”
said the health department official.

debasish.konar@timesgroup.com