Udupi, (The Hindu): Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said on Sunday that the government wanted to provide the poor access to quality healthcare facilities so that their health did not suffer for the want of it.

He was speaking after inaugurating the Koosamma Shambhu Shetty Memorial Haji Abdulla Maternity and Children’s Hospital here.

He also unveiled a plaque to mark the laying of the foundation stone for the construction of two Indira Canteens in Udupi. He declared Udupi district as an Open Defecation-Free District on the occasion.

Mr. Siddaramaiah said that the full construction of the 200-bed Koosamma Shambhu Shetty Memorial Haji Abdulla Maternity and Children’s Government Hospital would be completed by January 15, 2018. The poor people would be given quality healthcare by BRS Health and Research Foundation (BRSHRF).

It would be 100% free. If by any chance, the patients required further treatment, they would be provided free treatment at the 400-bed super-specialty hospital which would come up after the demolition of the 70-bed District Maternity Hospital. The four-acre land had been given on lease. The BRSHRF would use the money generated in the 400-bed hospital to subsidise the treatment in the 200-bed hospital. A committee under the Deputy Commissioner would keep a vigil on the functioning of the 200-bed hospital. NRI businessman B.R. Shetty, a native of Udupi, had constructed the 200-bed hospital because he wanted to contribute something to his home-town. Mr. Shetty had been the vice-president of the then Udupi town municipality in the late 1960s.

“Should we refuse if someone wants to provide better facilities to the poor? It is wrong to look at everything with suspicion,” he said.

The intention behind starting the Indira canteens was to see that poor people had access to good food at subsidised rates. At present, there were 200 Indira Canteens in the State; 300 more such canteens would be opened in different parts of the State in 2018. “We want Karnataka to be a hunger-free State,” he said.

The government wanted the entire State to be an Open Defecation-Free by October 2018, Mr. Siddaramaiah said.

K.R. Ramesh Kumar, Health and Family Welfare Minister, K.J. George, Bengaluru Development Minister, U.T. Khadar, Food and Civil Supplies Minister, Pramod Madhwaraj, Fisheries, Youth Empowerment and Sports Minister, C.R. Shetty, vice-president, BRSHRF, were present.