Ridding healthcare services of their ills - IAS Sudhi Ranjan Mohanty M.P, Bhopal

The finalists have been invited to Japan from December 10-13 in order to deliver presentations on their projects. Mr S R Mohanty, managing director of the MP State Industries Development Corporation, and the driving force behind the RKS project, will represent the government of Madhya Pradesh at the event.

Mr Mohanty, who was district collector in 1994, explains the nature of the RKS movement: "The movement was an offshoot of the plague that hit Surat. It was started from the Maharaja Yashwantrao (M Y) Hospital in Indore." He adds, "A lot of people who were fleeing Surat were passing through Indore.S R Mohanty IAS Officer

So there was the danger of the epidemic spreading to our city. Moreover, there were half a million slum dwellers in the area that needed to be cleaned up. The situation was deplorable. You will be horrified to know that we cleared the M Y Hospital of over 12,000 rats during the early days of the RKS initiative."


Mr SR Mohanty IAS Officer got the 900 beds in the hospital evacuated so that the place could be "sealed, sprayed and fumigated" to get it into shape. And the effort continued. "The Rogi Kalyan Samiti is a self-sustaining, autonomous body even though it has been set up by the government of Madhya Pradesh," says Mr Mohanty. "We have trustees who oversee its running. We do not depend on the government for the upkeep of the RKS. We raise funds for the project by collecting user charges and donations."