Lucknow, Jul 5 (IANS): Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has sanctioned a whopping sum of Rs 223.31 crore in a little more than a year of his tenure for treatment of over 15,000 seriously-ill persons in Uttar Pradesh, a RTI response has revealed.

In response to the RTI poser by a Hindi newspaper, the Chief Minister's Office has revealed that he has so far sanctioned a sum of Rs 223.31 crores for treatment of 15,716 persons.

His predecessor Akhilesh Yadav's spend during his tenure of 2012-2017 under this head was Rs 552.92 crore which was used for treatment of 42,508 persons.

Officials of the Chief Minister's Office told IANS that this money was given to the seriously ill from the Chief Minister's Discretionary Fund after due diligence is done by his office as the applications are routed back to the districts concerned where officials asked to verify the disease mentioned by the applicant and also verify the amount sought for treatment.

Once this process is duly followed and adhered to the application is routed back to the Chief Minister's Office in Lucknow and the funds released, an official said, adding that the funds are not transferred to the beneficiary but is sent directly to the institution or hospital where the treatment is to be done.

Compared to Adityanath and Akhilesh Yadav, their predecessors have been miserly on this front.

As per information available, Mayawati, during her two tenures, had sanctioned Rs 62.91 crore for treatment of 15,681 persons, Mulayam Singh Yadav, between 2003-2007, granted Rs 28.21 crore for treatment of 5,526 persons while Rajnath Singh had granted financial assistance of Rs 5.51 crore in his tenure of a little more than one year.

This grant is given to persons suffering from life-threatening diseases like cancer and liver, heart and kidney ailments.