Srinagar, May 22: In a significant initiative to empower Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) in J&K, the Health Department has ordered that Sarpanchs and Panchs of the elected Halqa Panchayats would be the Chairmen of the Village Health, Sanitation & Nutrition Committee (VHS&NC) under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM).
 The concerned ASHA/ANM shall be the Member-Secretary and concerned School Teacher/ANM/AWW as Members of the Committee with due representation to the women and weaker sections of the society, like SC, ST, OBC.
 Announcing the decision at a high-level meeting of the officers of Health Department held here today, the Minister for Health & Family Welfare, Sham Lal Sharma said that consequent upon the devolution of powers and functions of Halqa Panchayat, the VHS and NCs have been reconstituted with concerned Sarpanchs, Panchs as its Chairman.
 Sham said that bank accounts have been opened for every Village Committee, which will be operated with the joint signatures of the Sarpanch/Panch and ASHA/ANM. Every VHS&NC would be entitled to an annual Untied Grant of Rs. 10,000 for utilizing the same on the village level activities like cleanliness, sanitation, health awareness activities, conduct of household surveys.
 “The intention of this Untied Grant is to enable local action and to ensure that public activities at the village level receive priority attention,” Sham said.
 The Minister said that 6886 VHS and NCs have been constituted in the State so far and the funds to the tune of Rs. 3.14 crore as Untied funds have already been earmarked in favour of such Committees. “This will help in empowering the PRIs and local participation in decision-making about the planning of health services at grassroots level as well as its execution,” Sham said.
 He said that it has also been decided to re-constitute the Health Sub Centre Committees in the State.
 Earlier, in absence of PRIs in the State, the annual Untied and AMG funds of Rs. 20,000/- each being provided under NRHM were utilized by the local Committees constituted at the Sub-Centre level.
 He directed all the Chief Medical Officers (CMOs) to constitute Sub-Centre Fund Expenditure Committees under the chairmanship of the concerned Sarpanch with two representatives from every VHS&NC falling under the jurisdiction of the Sub –Centre, one being the chairperson of the VHS&NC and another member to be nominated by the chairperson and ANM as Members. The ANM will be the Member-Secretary of the Committee.

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