Intra and inter-sectoral meeting held on National Health Mission

GANGTOK, 21 Nov [IPR]: Under the chairmanship of Minister for Health, DN Takarpa “Intra and Inter-sectoral Coordination Meeting” was held in the European Conference Hall of STNM Hospital today.
The meeting, which was well attended by the doctors, officials from the line departments, members of various NGOs and religious leaders, saw a comprehensive discussion on National Health Mission (NHM).
MD, NHM, Dr. PM Pradhan during his power point presentation gave a detailed account of National Health Mission its works, practices, challenges and achievements.
A long but productive discussion followed where the officials from the line departments, members of NGOs and religious leaders actively participated and placed their ideas and suggestions.
Addressing the gathering the Minister Mr. Takarpa informed that it was the vision and a great desire of the Chief Minister, Pawan Chamling to see the people of Sikkim healthy, and the government has done much work to educate the people about the importance of health, hygiene and healthy life style to achieve the goal.
He further added that only medicines, drugs and doctors are not sufficient to fight diseases but the participation of the people and awareness on diseases is also very important since these days, non-communicable and life style diseases have become a cause of concern for the people.
In order to make Sikkim healthy and disease free not only the health department and government establishments should work but cooperation and active participation from all sections of the society is of paramount importance, he stressed
Mr. Takarpa also appealed to the people to change their habits and life style to lead healthy lifestyle and go organic and advocated going vegetarian and avoiding alcohol in the name of rituals.
Sikkim is rapidly progressing towards being an organic state and as and when this is achieved, the people from the state will be able to have completely organic food grains, fruits and vegetables which will in turn completely eradicate diseases which are being caused by chemical fertilizers in food.
Director General and Secretary Health Department, Dr. Kumar Bhandhari who also addressed the gathering hoped that these bi-annual meetings will yield good results.
He also informed about the various achievements which the state has been able to attain in the health sector, which he said was due to the good governance, policies and programmes of the Chamling led government.
Earlier the programme began with the welcome note by Dr. M.Lepcha [JD cum Nodal officer National Health Mission]. The daylong meet ended with vote of thanks which was proposed by Dr. N Shenga.