Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Saturday called upon non-government organisations and corporates to adopt TB patients to nurture them.
Interacting with the TB patients under the Nikshay Yojana through audio-conferencing today, the CM said a portal-
https://communitysupport.nikshay.in/ has been created for organizations, companies etc, who want to help TB patients in the state.
“Various organisations and individuals who want to provide nutritional support to TB patients can visit this portal and register themselves by creating a login ID. They are called Nikshay Mitra. So far around 1,500 such Nikshay Mitras are registered on this portal,” he added.
The CM said he has also adopted five TB patients under this scheme. He said the state government is determined to make the state Tuberculosis (TB) free by the year 2025. “With the determination that ‘TB will lose and the country will win’, the state government is taking meaningful steps,” the CM said.
He urged the TB patients to take benefits of free TB testing and treatment services available in government health institutions and spread awareness about TB.
Khattar expressed gratitude to President Droupadi Murmu for launching the Nikshay Yojana in September, 2022 for the nutrition of TB patients. The CM said this scheme was also launched in Haryana on September 15, 2022. Under this, nutrition kits are being given to TB patients by adopting them by the Governor, Health Minister and eminent citizens, he added.
The CM said nutrition kits have so far been distributed to 8,000 patients in the state under the Nikshay Yojana. These nutrition kits include wheat, rice, groundnut edible oil and pulses, etc. This initiative has boosted the morale of TB patients and helped them to become free from the disease, he added.
Khattar urged the TB patients to contact the district TB Officer in case of help needed for nutritious food. He said co-operation is being taken from private and corporate hospitals to expand the services of TB treatment.
“Many companies have come forward and cooperated extensively in this work. Various corporate companies have adopted 13 districts to make them TB free. Medanta Hospital is conducting an intensive campaign by mobile vans to check TB patients in Yamunanagar and Karnal. In Rewari district too, new TB patients are being screened by a company with the help of a mobile van, which has been named as Sankalp Project,” he said.
Khattar said a nutritional allowance of Rs 500 is also being given to TB patients every month during their treatment. “So far, about Rs 80 Crore has been given directly to the bank accounts of TB patients in the form of nutritional allowance. Including these, Rs 91.39 crore has so far been given to TB patients under various schemes of the national TB eradication programme,” he added.
The Chief Minister said that the state government has made operational about 350 cough test centres, 80 molecular laboratories and two culture laboratories for free TB test. He said 75,730 TB patients were identified in the state in 2022, out of which 40,276 patients are still under treatment.
