DW BUREAU / Chandigarh Haryana Chief Minister, Sh. Manohar Lal has announced an amount of Rs. 81.5 crore for providing better medical facilities to the citizens at Maharaja Agrasen Medical College, Agroha. In this project, Rs. 25 crore will be spent for construction of various facilities in medical college, Rs. 17 crore for hostel construction, Rs. 23 crore for purchase of various equipment and Rs. 16.5 crore for other resources. The Chief Minister said this while addressing at the second Convocation held at the OP Jindal Auditorium at Maharaja Agrasen Medical College, Agroha on Saturday as the Chief Guest. Earlier, he also inaugurated the newly constructed Block-D of the hospital in the Medical College campus. In his address, Chief Minister, Sh. Manohar Lal said that the state government is committed to provide better health facilities to the citizens of the state. In order to provide the benefit of Ayushman Bharat scheme to more and more poor families by the government, the annual income slab of BPL families has been increased to Rs. 1.80 lakh. After this the number of BPL families will increase from 10 lakhs to about 22 lakhs. All these families will be provided free medical facilities up to Rs. 5 lakh under the Ayushman Bharat scheme. The Chief Minister said that to ensure the availability of adequate doctors in the state, the process of opening medical colleges in every district of Haryana is going at a fast pace. At present there are 13 medical colleges in the state and 8 medical colleges are under process. At present there are about 13,000 doctors in the state, the target of the government is to increase their number to 28,000. For this, 2,650 doctors will be prepared to be engaged in the services every year. The Chief Minister called upon the new doctors to realize the spirit of service to mankind and appealed them to make the medical sector a service mission rather than a business. He said that along with better treatment of diseases, the emphasis should be made that people realize the value of healthy life and start adopting healthy practices. For this a better harmony of allopathy and Ayurveda can be made. We have to go towards taking food as medicine. Chief Minister, Sh. Manohar Lal while praising the management of the medical college said that the college provided excellent medical services not only to the nearby districts but also to the ailing persons of Punjab and Rajasthan during the COVID-19 pandemic. He added that the Agroha Medical College has also been given a Good Governance Award by the government for this special initiative. During the Convocation, 29 medals and 255 Degrees were awarded by the Chief Ministers to the pass out students. (editor@dailyworld.in)