Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh’s Minister of State for Divyangjan Empowerment and Backward Classes Welfare (Independent Charge), Narendra Kashyap, chaired a meeting of the Surgical Grant Committee at his government office in the Vidhan Sabha, reviewing the state’s support scheme for disability-related surgeries.
Officials told the minister that 340 applications had come in for cochlear implant surgery. Funds are currently in hand for 200 of these, and a proposal for the additional money needed to cover the rest has already gone to the state government — officials said they expect the funds to come through soon, at which point a further batch of pending applications would also be brought into the scheme.
Much of the discussion centred on what happens after the operating table. Officials explained that speech therapy is essential following cochlear implant surgery, and without it, the surgery can’t really be considered complete. The government spends roughly ₹5-6 lakh on each such procedure, they noted, but that investment goes to waste if the patient doesn’t get proper speech therapy afterward — and right now, that therapy simply isn’t available at hospitals in every district or division. For families receiving government-funded surgery, travelling to and staying in a city that does offer the therapy is often too expensive to manage.
Kashyap directed Principal Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh to draw up a proposal ensuring speech therapy is made available locally for cochlear implant patients, rather than forcing them to travel. Singh responded that setting up District Disability Rehabilitation Centres (DDRCs) at the divisional level would go a long way toward solving the problem. Kashyap pushed further, saying he wanted at least one empanelled hospital in every commissionerate equipped to offer the service.
Joint Director Ranjeet Singh and other senior departmental officials also attended the meeting.
