Daijiworld Media Network
New Delhi, Jul 4: In a move aimed at bringing financial relief to patients suffering from HIV/AIDS, the Himachal Pradesh government on Monday July 4 requested the centre to start a pension scheme for them.
State health minister Rajeev Bindal, addressing a national seminar on the subject in New Delhi, said that the state government also plans to provide employment to AIDS patients under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, on the behest of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
He added that twelve patients have already been employed as per the provisions of the Act.
The HIV+ infected rate has declined in the state from 2.4 percent to 0.8 percent, he informed.
The Prime Minister had earlier said that ministries undertake programmes to provide employment to HIV-infected patients, and favoured a link between MGNREG Act and AIDS programmes.