Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Mansukh Mandaviya inaugurated Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) Wellness Centre in Assam’s Silchar on Wednesday.

The Minister said that the wellness centre will provide quality healthcare to a large population in the region.

Mandaviya while inaugurating the centre virtually said, “In a significant achievement to strengthening the country's health infrastructure and accessibility to CGHS services, there has been a threefold increase in the number of Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) Wellness Centres. The cities covered by CGHS Wellness Centres have has grown from 25 in 2014 to 75 now. This is in line with the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji to provide easily accessible healthcare services closer to the communities.”

The New CGHS centre will provide healthcare services to retired Central Government employees residing in and around Silchar such as Karimganj, Hailakandi and the Barak valley.

The minister said, “The new Wellness Centre would cater to the medical needs of several thousands of beneficiaries and would mitigate their hardships, as they will not be required to travel to such faraway places now.”

The minister was accompanied by Dr Rajdeep Roy, MP (LS) and Dipayan Chakraborty, MLA from Silchar during the inaugural ceremony.

The CGHS Wellness Centre in Silchar is the third city after Guwahati and Dibrugarh in the state to have this facility. It is also one of the 16 new CGHS centres being set up across India in the Government's endeavour to expand the coverage and improve the accessibility of CGHS services.

The CGHS was started in 1954 with the aim of providing complete healthcare to to Central Government employees and pensioners and their dependent family members.

At present, more than 41 lakh beneficiaries in 75 cities are covered by this scheme.