Permanent disciplinary board needed: CAG "Budget estimates prepared without any proposals' Encephalitis prone areas not covered by vaccination LUCKNOW: Acute shortage of medical staff, absenteeism among doctors and lack of infrastructure are adversely affecting the delivery of health services to the rural people in Uttar Pradesh, the Comptroller and Auditor General has said. "Shortage of medical and para medical staff and absenteeism adversely affected the delivery of health services to the rural people in the state,' the CAG said in its report. There was a shortfall of 49 per cent in respect of female specialists and 11 per cent in male specialists, the report said, adding the shortage had a direct bearing in delivery of specialised medical services. The report said that a check of community and primary health centres in seven districts of Fatehpur, Kaushambi, Pratapgarh, Moradabad, Muzaffarnagar, Sitapur and Sultanpur revealed that 30 doctors posted there remained absent unauthorisedly for the last one to 10 years but no action was initiated against them. The report pointed out that the budget estimates were prepared without any proposals from the chief medical officers leading to inflated estimation and surrender of over Rs 953 crore during the period between 2002 and 2007. It also said the health indicator targets under Family Welfare Programme were not achieved mainly due to poor anti-natal care, lower institutional births or births through untrained personnel and non-supply of folic acid tablets. In a serious indictment of the previous Mulayam Singh Yadav regime, the CAG report said that Japanese Encephalitis prone districts were not adequately covered by vaccination, fogging and spraying operation. Among these districts, Deoria, Gorakhpur, Kushinagar and Maharajganj had been experiencing JE deaths for more than two decades and 1,666 of the total 2,667 deaths occurred in these four districts during 2002-07, it said. "JE could not be contained even in the worst affected districts,' the report said. It also said that the State TB Control Society failed to achieve its main objective of combating the disease owing to its failure to establish Microscopic Centres for detection of sputum at the community health centres. The report pointed out that non-Establishment of Bio-Medical Waste Management created unhygienic condition at health centres. "Bio-Medical wastes were dumped in an open pit within the premises of the health centres,' it said. The report also revealed that there was a total lack of coordination between the CMOs and the Director Generals which contributed to postings of specialists and para medical staff without necessary equipment. It suggested that a permanent disciplinary board needed to be constituted to check the menace of absenteeism.