*Takes stock of arrangements for ‘Vitasta fest’
Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, June 2: Chief Secretary, Dr. Arun Kumar Mehta today stressed on extending the facility of online appointments with doctors in the health institutions of J&K. He impressed on the health officers to work for making this service available to public within a month’s time.
Dr Mehta was speaking in the 12th Governing Body meeting of National Health Mission (NHM) attended by Principal Secretary, Jal Shakti; Commissioner Secretary, RDD; Commissioner Secretary, Social Welfare; Secretary, Health; MD, NHM; Principal, GMC Srinagar/Jammu; Director, MCH&I; Director Health, Kashmir/Jammu; Director, Ayush besides others.
Dr Mehta maintained that the prior online appointments to patients are given in many premier hospitals in the country and the Department needs to bring their own system in sync with that to make the process of visiting a Hospital easier. He told them to adopt the simplest and efficient system available.
Chief Secretary also enjoined upon the officers to digitize the patient history and other legacy data so that the same is accessible round the clock. He said that the convergence of data from Health Care Institutions, Anganwadi centres and Educational Institutions could make a database inclusive of all health details from birth till date for each person. He urged them to make it an objective to ensure 100% digitization of health records of all the individuals here in the UT.
On the occasion both the Secretary Health, Bhupinder Kumar and MD, NHM, Ayushi Sudan gave a detailed overview of the functioning of the Department especially the National Health Mission (NHM), J&K.
The Governing Body discussed the proposals of the NHM to ratify State Programme Implementation Programme (SPIP) to the tune of Rs 1441.60 cr for FY 2023-24, procurement of Covid essential Diagnostic & Drugs, Implementation of IT interventions like HMIS (e-SAHAJ) from District Hospitals and CHCs to Tertiary Care Hospitals. It also discussed maternity leave in favour of contractual female employees as per the existing labour laws and other HR related issues for making the functioning of the mission smooth and efficient.
Meanwhile, Chief Secretary, took stock of the arrangements for the ‘Vitasta’ Cultural Festival to be organized by the Ministry of Culture, GoI in the last week of this month.
Those who were present included ACS, Home; Principal Secretary, Education; ADGP, Security; Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir; Secretary, Tourism; Commissioner, SMC; Director Tourism, Kashmir; Director Colleges; VC, LCMA; Secretary, Academy of Art, Culture & Languages besides others.
Officers from Ministry of Culture, GoI also participated in the meeting through video conferencing.
Dr Mehta maintained that the festival would be one of the events that is going to play a major role in promoting tourism and showcasing our rich cultural values. He made out that the festival is not only an opportunity to showcase our culture and crafts but to exhibit our talent and immense diversity before the world.
The Chief Secretary stressed on including crafts and cuisine from every part of J&K. He urged the concerned nodal Department here to ensure that all the areas should find their representation in this mega cultural event. He also impressed upon them to give opportunity to students of Colleges and Universities to display their skills during the festival.
He also advised them to hold events related to this festival all across the Srinagar City so that more people get opportunity to participate in it. He stated that the events should be organized all areas, heritage destinations and enroute the places on River Jhelum (Vitasta). He observed that the theme of the festival deserves to be depicted amid natural settings to enhance their appeal for the audience. He also advised utilizing the breath-taking locales of Dal Lake, Char Chinar, Panch Chinar, Old Museum, Jhelum Riverfront and others for making the festival vibrant and more interesting.
It was said that camps on Calligraphy, Painting, Kashmir Buddhism, Exhibition by ASI, Art installation, Vitasta Opera, craft display and cultural quiz shall be some of the highlights of this multi-day festival.
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