Telangana Finance Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka said, “The current medical system is not adequate to meet the needs of people and the sector has been largely neglected.”
| Photo Credit: Special arrangement
The Health Medical and Family Welfare Budget for Telangana in the fiscal year 2024-25 has seen a reduction compared to the previous year. The current allocation is ₹11,468 crore for Medical and Health, reflecting a decrease of ₹910 crore from the ₹12,161 crore assigned in 2023-24. This figure is also ₹32 crore less than the ₹11,500 crore proposed in the Vote on Account Budget announced in February.
While presenting the Budget, Finance Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka highlighted several concerns. He remarked, “The current medical system is not adequate to meet the needs of people and the sector has been largely neglected. The previous government could not even pay timely salaries to doctors, nurses, and other government and contractual employees.”
The Minister also criticised the neglect of the Osmania General Hospital, noting that despite claims of establishing new medical colleges, the previous government failed to provide necessary amenities, resources, and facilities.
“Our government has released all salary arrears to employees and assures timely salaries in the future to ensure a smooth and efficient system,” he said. “We are committed to completing under-construction super-specialty hospitals, other hospitals, nursing colleges, and medical colleges. As soon as our government was formed, we issued appointment orders to 6,956 nurses.”
The Finance Minister also highlighted the strengthening of the Rajiv Aarogyasri Yojana, originally introduced by a previous Congress government. “We have increased the coverage from ₹5 lakh to ₹10 lakh. Additionally, we have raised the package prices of 1,375 treatments out of 1,672 by an average of 20%. The scope of the Aarogyasri scheme has also been expanded to include 163 diseases.”, he said.
The Minister announced plans to improve Dental, Eye, ENT, and mental health care availability in a phased manner.
Digital Health Profile Initiative
“In a bid to make health services more accessible through modern technology, the government will introduce digital health profile cards for all citizens, each with a unique identification number. This approach will centralise citizens’ health information, facilitating easy diagnosis and prompt treatment,” stated the Finance Minister.
