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Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) To Begin Surveillance Programme As Centre Delays Funds

By siddharth22, Section Kolkata Municipal Corporation
Posted on Thu Apr 10, 2008 at 12:42:39 AM EST

The inordinate delay in receiving funds from the Centre regarding the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP), has forced civic officials to begin work on the programme on its own. Fed up with the delay, officials will start data collection work with a grant of Rs 5 lakh from the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC).

According to the minutes of the meeting of a newly formed KMC Integrated Health Society (IDSP), held on 27 March, it was "proposed that a grant of Rs 5 lakh be prayed from the civic body for meeting initial expenditures of IDSP." The fund is expected to help initiate data entry work without loss of time.

Under the IDSP guidelines, the city civic body has already set up Municipal Surveillance Committee, which will look into all matters relating to IDSP. IDSP, a joint initiative between the Centre and the city civic body, is a decentralised state-based surveillance programme. The programme is supposed to detect signs of any epidemic outbreak in the city and requires collection of necessary data to track the outbreak of diseases like chikungunya, dengue, gastroenteritis and malaria.

Interestingly, the city civic body was supposed to receive Rs 92,88,000 from the Centre for carrying out data collection work. A substantial portion of the fund was also earmarked for buying computers and other requisite accessories and employing the required personnel for the project. However, the non-receipt of funds has made these plans go haywire.

Incidentally, this non-availability of funds was discussed at the last meeting of the KMC Integrated Health Society (IDSP) where members expressed their concern over the matter. Members also discussed in length the procurement of computers, LCD projectors and other accessories.

Matters relating to the employment of staff employment like data entry operators, manager and accountant were also discussed in the meeting.

"Matters relating to the procurement of accessories and recruitment of staff were discussed at the meeting. Since funds have not yet been received, we had to decide how we will move ahead with the project," a member of the KMC Integrated Health Society (IDSP) said.

Later it was decided that two data entry operators and some casual staff like a security guard would be employed. The staff though are civic employees who will be deployed for the IDSP project on a temporary basis.

Source:http://www.thestatesman.net,10-04-08

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