Maharashtra govt assures Planning Commission panel help

The state government has assured the Planning Commission that proper attention would be given to the community-based monitoring (CBM) under the National Health Rural Mission (NHRM) in sectors like water supply, rationing and food security.

The member of the Planning Commission, Sayeeda Hameed, and the health advisor to the commission, NK Sethi, had a meeting with the state chief minister, Prithviraj Chavan, recently on the issue.

The NGO, Sathi Cehat, is the nodal agency for CBM in the state. Abhay Shukla, the member on the advisory board of the NRHM and convenor of the Sathi (Support for Advocacy and Training to Health Initiatives)-Cehat (Centre for Enquiry Into Health and Allied Themes) told DNA that Hameed and Sethi spoke extensively about the CBM and explained the concept to the chief minister.

Shukla said Hameed convinced Chavan that the CBM for the food and water supply can be launched as a pilot project in the state initially in two districts and once successful can be replicated in other districts.

As part of the pilot project, the districts of Thane and Gadchiroli have been chosen where the CBM would be taken up.

Shukla said the scheme will identify the problems and thereafter a dialogue is conducted between the people and the authorities, who are in charge of the sectors like food, water or rationing and steps would be taken to tackle the problems. This process aims at involving people to monitor whether they are getting a fair deal out of it or not.