Rautahat, July 9

New mothers at District Hospital Rautahat have not been receiving government-allocated delivery allowance meant for new mothers for the past two years.

According to sources, hundreds of women at the district hospital and its constituent health facilities have been deprived of the allowance due to delayed budget disbursement by the Department of Health. Government allocated incentives for new mothers include Rs 1,000 for each delivery in a state owned health facility, Rs 500 for transportation and Rs 400 for health check-up.

Kamani Devi Mahato visited a state-owned health facility four times for check-up during her pregnancy and delivered her baby in the same health facility yet she did not receive any incentive under any heading, she informed.

District Health Office Rautahat Chief Dr Nabal Kishor Jha acknowledged being unable to distribute the incentive for the last two fiscals. He said, “Incentive worth Rs 4.5 million of the last fiscal and around Rs 2.5 million of this fiscal are yet to be distributed.”

Jha said although the health facility has been accused of financial irregularities over the incentive, it was not at fault. “The concerned department has not sent us the fund. However the women and their kin blame us,” said Jha, adding that he has repeatedly written to the concerned department, but to no avail.