Gorakhpur (UP), Jul 16 (PTI) Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath today sought the help of medical fraternity in spreading awareness about various preventive measures to curb encephalitis in rural areas.

The Chief Minister made the appeal to the doctors while inaugurating and laying foundation stones for a slew of completed and new projects worth nearly Rs 75 crore in Baba Raghav Das Medical College here.

Adityanath asked the doctors to hold at least two ‘chaupals’ for over four hours per week in rural areas to spread the awareness about various preventive measures against encephalitis.

“When I see the last 40 years’ data on encephalitis deaths, I feel very sad. We need to understand that prevention is the most important measure in combating encephalitis,” said the Chief Minister.

“Be sensitive towards providing facilities to patients. A doctor is not honest if he is not doing so. I appeal to the media and the intellectuals to encourage the good work of the medical college,” he added.

Taking a dig at previous governments’ “slow pace” in developing medical infrastructure in the state, Adityanath said, “Only 13 medical colleges were made from 1947 to 2014 in Uttar Pradesh, besides an incomplete one at Rai Bareli.” “Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, five medical colleges are being built in UP alone for the last one year. We are also planning to make eight new medical colleges with the help of the Central government. The work on building AIIMS too is underway on war footing,” the CM added.

“The previous governments posed many hindrances in building medical colleges. I want to congratulate the Medical Education Department that they started work after resolving all disputes in a year,” he said.

“Today 25 to 50 per cent physical developments could be seen at all those medical colleges and, within a month, we will lay the foundation stone for a Common Rehabilitation Centre (CRC) and a Regional Virology Centre (RVC) here.” The Chief Minister also accused the previous government of not securing the Centre’s aid for strengthening the state’s medical infrastructure.

“The Central government wanted to give life-support ambulances to the state but the previous government did not want to take it. As soon as our government came to power, we gave two life-support ambulances to each district of the state,” he said.

He added his government wanted to add over 750 more ambulances to service the calls to the emergency telephone number 108 and cut down the response time for ferrying patients to hospitals.

Adityanath said his government was also trying to increase the number of seats for MBBS students in the BRD Medical college and improve the facilities for its students.

Pointing out that the BRD Medical College, Gorakhpur caters to the medicare needs of not only eastern Uttar Pradesh, but also those of western Bihar and ‘terai’ region of Nepal, the Chief Minister said, “I remember the condition here over a year ago but the changes could be easily seen now.” At the BRD Medical College today, the Chief Minister laid foundation stones various new projects worth over Rs 37 crore. These new projects included a 125-bed night shelter, installation of an electronic security system and upgradation of fire hydrant system.

The other projects that Adityanath laid foundation stones for included renovation of ten hospital wards and building of a labour complex.

The Chief Minister also inaugurated several completed projects worth over Rs 37 lakh. They included a nine-bed prefabricated ward, six modular operation theatres, a 500-kilowatt solar power plant besides 11 other projects.

Medical Education Minister Ashutosh Tandon was also present at the occasion.

He said the work for turning medical colleges into e-hospitals was also underway.