Budget 2024: Kerala’s dream of AIIMS-like institution dashed again
The Hindu
Kerala's hopes for an AIIMS-like institution were dashed in Union Budget 2024-25, sparking political debates and disappointment.
Kerala’s much-anticipated and decades-long dream of having an All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)-like institution on its soil was dashed yet again when the proposal found no mention in the Union Budget 2024-25 presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on July 23.
Also read: Budget 2024 LIVE, highlights
Unlike in the previous years, the anticipation this year that the project might finally come through was intense, particularly because of the presence of two Union Ministers of State from Kerala at the Centre, one of whom is the BJP’s first-ever elected MP from the State.
On July 22 too, the topic of approving an AIIMS-like institution for Kerala had been raised in Rajya Sabha by John Brittas, MP.
However, not just AIIMS, no major proposals for the nation’s health sector seemed to figure in the Union Budget 2024-25, other than the exemption of three more cancer drugs from customs duties.
The total allocation for the nation’s health sector in the Budget is ₹89,287 crore. The Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana has an allocation of ₹7,500 crore and the health coverage under the scheme has been extended to accredited social health activists (ASHA), anganwadi workers and helpers.
AIIMS was established as an autonomous institution in New Delhi under the Act of Parliament in 1956 and is today the apex medical institution in the country.