Jalandhar, July 30
There are very few takers of the Surakhit Janepa Yojana (SJY), a major component of the National Rural Health Mission, in the district.

By offering an incentive to private hospitals for conducting child deliveries in hospitals, the scheme is aimed at improving the institutional child delivery rate.

As per the sources in the department, only seven hospitals in the district volunteered to be accredited under the scheme.

However, besides two hospitals, not even a single hospital approached the health authorities to avail the financial benefit, which is given at the rate of Rs 2,500 per delivery to the hospital managements.

The incentive is given to the hospitals only in case the mother belongs to a below poverty line (BPL) Family.

“With the meager amount of Rs 2,500 per delivery, we cannot meet even the expenditure incurred on procuring medicine to conduct the delivery. Hospitals charge between Rs 5,000 to Rs 7,000 per delivery in normal cases. And in cesarean cases, hospitals charge about Rs 15,000 per delivery,” said a doctor of a private hospital.

“It is not viable for us to charge Rs 2,500 per delivery”, he said, adding that due to financial reasons, private doctors were not opting to conduct deliveries under the NHRM scheme.

In charge of the scheme in the district, Dr Maninder Kaur Minhas, District Family Welfare Officer, said it was true that hospital managements felt that the fee paid to private hospitals for handling the deliveries was not satisfactory.

She said State Health Department authorities had been asked to increase the per delivery amount to Rs 5,000 from the existing Rs 2500. She said with the increase of the amount to Rs 5,000, there would be many hospitals ready to conduct deliveries.

The Union Government has been pressing to increase the percentage of deliveries at the hospital level. At present, the percentage in Punjab is far less compared to states like Kerala where it is in the range of 90 per cent. Owing to this reason, the infant mortality rate is very less in Kerala as compared to other states, including Punjab.

Hoshiarpur, July 30
Condemning the SAD-BJP government for granting sanction to enhance value added tax from 27.5 per cent to 32 per cent on petrol by accepting the recommendations of the Sukhbir-Kalia committee report, former Punjab minister and Congress leader Naresh Thakur said this would pave the way to enhance rate of petrol by Rs 2 to Rs 3 per litre in near future, which would further add fuel to the skyrocketing prices of essential commodities.

Talking to mediapersons here today, Thakur said on the one hand the BJP was opposing price hike in the country and was insisting on discussing price hike issue in Parliament and on the other hand in Punjab it along with its ruling partner SAD had granted sanction for the enhancement of VAT on petrol.

The BJP was never serious to control the price hike of essential commodities and was misleading the people, alleged Naresh Thakur.

The president of the Hoshiarpur Nagar Vikas Manch, Amarjit Singh Amar, while condemning the sanction to enhance the rate of VAT on petrol said it would not only increase the price of petrol but also hike the prices of essential commodities.

He urged the leaders of the SAD-BJP government not to follow the recommendations of the Sukhbir-Kalia committee report for enhancing the VAT rate on petrol to avoid further increase in the rates of essential goods, which had already gone beyond the reach of the poor and middle class families.

Phillaur, July 30
Two children died in different mishaps here on Thursday night. Sunita (12) was reportedly burnt to death while cooking on a stove in her kitchen in nearby Dallewal village. She was taken to the Civil Hospital, where she was declared brought dead. In another incident, a minor boy drowned in a swimming pool here on Thursday.

Hoshiarpur: Two persons were killed in road accidents in the district today.

According to police sources, Prem Singh (40) of Purhiran died in front of an ice factory on the Hoshiarpur-Tanda road here at about 8.30 am today when a Maruti Zen car (No PB 61A 4700) hit a Tempo (No PB 32 J 8734) while it was coming on the main road from the factory after loading ice bars.

In another accident, Soni Ram of Bassi Jaura died, while his younger brother Pradeep was seriously wounded when a truck hit them near Jatpur village at about 6.30 am today. Pardeep was admitted to the Civil Hospital. The driver of the truck fled away with his vehicle. The police has registered cases.