Funds for reimbursing travel cost of HIV patients lie unused

Neena Sharma

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, December 1

For more than eight months, the State AIDS Control Society (SACS) did not use the funds allocated under the AIDS control programme to reimburse the travelling expenses of HIV positive patients undergoing anti-retroviral therapy (ART).

For the past eight months, Rs 35 lakh is lying unused when it could have helped fund the project that ensures free travel to HIV patients in the buses being run by the state road transport corporation.

The Central Government allocated Rs 35 lakh after the SACS approved the scheme in May 2015 for reimbursing travel costs of registered HIV patients, who travel to the nearest ART centres. However, the Uttarakhand Department of Health could not utilise the funds as these were transferred under a different head.

“A technical error regarding the transfer of funds under a different head prevented us from accessing them and they remained blocked. My predecessor did not take appropriate steps to correct the situation. Now, we have written to the state government to make corrections and I am hopeful that we will be able to release funds in the next 10 to 15 days,” said Dr Kailash Joshi, assistant project director, SACS.

According to the scheme, the travel expenses of HIV patients, who are registered at the Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) centres, will be reimbursed through cheques. The patients will also have to provide a certificate from the regional transport authority about the total distance from the nearest bus stand to the ART Centre.

Had these funds been released on time, the scheme to reimburse the travelling expenses of the HIV patients could have started in June itself. “Lack of assistance from the state government to HIV patients is annoying. In Uttarakhand, poor patients travel from hill areas to the ART centres for treatment. The burden of the disease is huge. To top it, there is no help from the state. Usually, patients, due to financial constraints, do not report back for treatment. The free travel scheme would have helped patients,” said Lawrence Singh, a social activist working with HIV patients.