SHILLONG, Sept 17 - Meghalaya Minister of Health and Family Welfare AL Hek today launched two programmes aimed at creating public awareness on health-related issues. In the first programme, Hek launched the Ayushman Bharat Fortnight by flagging off a walkathon from the Health Complex at Laitumkhrah. The minister said the Ayushman Bharat flagship health insurance programme would ensure every citizen get benefits from the scheme. Hek said health is a priority area for the Government, and that the Government would ensure the scheme is implemented in letter and spirit. During the awareness campaign, officials of the Health and Family Welfare Department and ASHA workers chalked out various programmes in rural as well as urban areas across the State to educate the public about the Government�s ambitious healthcare scheme.
Ayushman Bharat is the largest funded programme of the Central Government. It contains two interrelated components � establishment of health and wellness centres that cover prevention, promotion and ambulatory care at the primary level and the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana for cashless treatment at the secondary and tertiary levels.
The other objective under the scheme is to establish 1.5 lakh health and wellness centres across the country by 2022. In Meghalaya, 42 health and wellness centres are functioning and it is expected that by 2022 the State will have 207 such centres.
Meanwhile, Hek also inaugurated a daylong training programme for street food vendors called �Project Serve Safe Food�. The training programme was launched by Nestle India Limited in collaboration with the Commissionerate of Food Safety, Meghalaya, and the National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI).
The objective is to train 500 street food vendors in the State. The training programme will also be conducted at Sohra and Tura during September and November this year.
