5.5 lakh ‘Warkaris’ given health services during Pandharpur pilgrimage

 Mumbai, June 29 A record 550,000 ‘Warkaris’ (devotees) were given various types of health services during the Ashadi Ekadashi festival at Pandharpur in Maharashtra's Solapur in the past few days, an official said on Thursday.

A series of health camps were organised from the three-week-long festival peak starting June 26 and will continue till Friday at the pilgrimage which attracts over two million devotees from across the state.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his wife Lata, along with other family members, performed the traditional official maha-pooja at the Shri Vitthal Rukmini Temple at 2.30 a.m. and it concluded at 4 am.

Accompanied by Health Minister Dr Tanaji Sawant and Rural Development Minister Girish Mahajan, Shinde went around the Warkaris camps where over 550,000 got free medical services and the figure is likely to cross 600,000 by Friday.

For those needing extended treatment post-festival, the government has issued necessary instructions to all health-care facilities to do the needful across the state, Sawant said.

Just a day earlier, the government raised the insurance cover from Rs150,000 to Rs 500,000 and brought the entire state population under the ambit of the flagship scheme Mahatma Jyotirao Phule Jan Arogya Yojana, and will extend the Hindu HridaySamrat Balasaheb Thackeray health care scheme all over the state with 700 clinics to come up soon.

During the past three weeks, healthcare and medical teams of a total of more than 10,000 workers, comprising doctors, nurses and paramedics, were stationed at every kilometre, with facilities like ambulances, vehicles and other requirements for the sick or fatigued Warkaris walking down from different places.

The government also set up three mega-camps and three minor 24x7 facilities in Pandharpur with treatment for ophthalmology, cardiology, nephrology, orthopaedics, diabetology, dermatology, etc., state-of-the-art equipment to diagnose and treat patients on the spot, ICU and surgical facilities.