Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Tuesday said as part of the campaign launched by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to make India tuberculosis (TB) free by the year 2025, Haryana has set the target to become the first in the country to be TB-free, ahead of the national target.

“To achieve this goal, a state task force (STF) will be formed, under which government and private sector medical institutes and doctors will work together to make Haryana TB-free,” the CM said while holding an important meeting with the officers of the health department and private medical institutions here today regarding the TB-free Haryana campaign.

The CM directed the officers to integrate the data of all the private clinics and nursing homes, treating TB patients, by establishing coordination with these institutions, so that the real-time data of all the TB patients in the state can be known and timely treatment can be ensured.

He directed that mobile units be deployed in each district to detect TB patients, which would conduct door-to-door TB diagnosis tests.

Khattar said various initiatives are being focused to make Haryana TB-free. Under this, efforts are being made to timely detect TB patients, ensure their treatment and provide nutritious food to such patients during the treatment period of 6 months. He directed officers to increase the number of Interferon Gamma Release Assay (IGRA) labs in the state.

Directing the officers, the CM said the state government has launched the Nirogi Haryana scheme, under which health checkup is being done in the first phase for families with an annual income of up to Rs 1.80 lakh. So far, medical health checkups of two lakh people have been done.

During these checkups, many TB patients have also been diagnosed. He said special focus should be given to the speedy implementation of Nirogi Haryana Yojana at the grassroots levels along with its implementation in the cities as well.

The CM said arrangements for conducting 25 types of tests to be done under this scheme should be made in all the labs. Apart from this, an arrangement should be made to conduct all these vital 25 tests in the mobile vans which are being run for TB diagnosis also, so as to ensure complete health checkup of the TB patients.