Mumbai: The pandemic has exposed the poor state of the country's public health infrastructure. With it in mind, senior Congress leader and Member of Legislative Council (MLC) Anant Gadgil has been striving to bring about an improvement for the last 3 years.
While speaking on the 2020- 2021 budget in the legislative council, he demanded to reserve Rs 10 lakhs of the increased Rs 1 crore annual local area development fund for public health infrastructure.
The state government recently increased this fund from Rs 2 to Rs 3 crore. “There are more than 350 legislators in both the houses.
If all the legislators spend Rs 10 lakhs each year on improving the public health infrastructure, we can imagine what a big fund will be available for public health development,” he said.
Vinod Nikole, a first-time legislator from Dahanu, a constituency reserved for Scheduled Tribes in Palghar district too, has announced to spend Rs 10 lakhs to fight against coronavirus.
"I have written a letter to the district collector to use Rs 10 lakhs from my fund as and where required in my Dahanu constituency to improve health facilities and infrastructure,” Nikole told FPJ.
“In West Bengal, all the legislators of the Communist Party (Marxist) have donated Rs 10 lakhs for fight against corona. I decided to follow this in Maharashtra,” Nikole, a CPI(M) legislator said.
