Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal called on the Union Health and Family Planning Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad at his residence here on Monday seeking his intervention for covering all the 22 districts of the state under the National Programme of Prevention and Control of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Diseases and Stroke (NPCDCS) and National Programme for Health Care for Elderly (NPCE).Accompanied by the Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal and Member Parliament from Bathinda Harsimrat Kaur Badal, the Chief Minister apprised Azad that at present only three districts of the state including Bathinda, Gurdaspur and Hoshiarpur have been covered under these programmes. He said that keeping in view the commitment of the state Government to provide quality health care facilities to the people, the scope of these ambitious schemes should be considerably enhanced thereby covering all the 22 districts of the state. Raising another issue the Chief Minister urged Azad that in order to provide world class Health care facilities to the poor families the ambit of the State Illness Fund Scheme must be widened. He said that now only 4.44 lac families across the state have been covered under the scheme but it must be made broad based so that more poor people could be benefitted from it. Badal also requested the Union Health Minister to change the funding pattern of this scheme from 67% share of state government and 33% share of Government of India (GoI) to 50% share of both the state government and GoI. Badal also urged the Union Health Minister to cover Punjab under the National Tobacco Control Programme (NTCP) as already around 22 other states across the country have been covered under the porgramme. In the same manner the Chief Minister also urged Azad to direct the officers of his Ministry to introduce Pentavalent Vaccine, that prevent children from five life threatening diseases, in the state so that immunity could be provided to the Children from fatal diseases. He said that this vaccine has already been introduced in eight states across the country adding that Punjab could be very much benefitted with the introduction of this vaccine. Likewise the Chief Minister also apprised Azad that the state government had submitted three project reports to the GoI under the National Urban Health Mission (NUHM) for Ludhiana, Amritsar and Jalandhar cities but the response of GoI on it was still awaited. He asked the Union Minister to get the matter expedited so that the immediate implementation of scheme for providing world class medical facility to the people in the state could be ensured. In the same manner he also requested the Union Minister that for the sake of people of Punjab, the GoI should continue to fund the Trauma Centres at Jalandhar, Pathankot, Amritsar and Khanna from March 2012 onwards also. Referring to the issue of Emergency Response Ambulances in the state, Badal urged the Union Minister to immediately release Rs 21.98 crore for 108 including 22 additional Ambulances covering all the districts. Azad assured the Chief Minister that he would soon convene a meeting of senior officers of his ministry to resolve all the pending issues on the priority. He also appreciated the initiatives taken by the state government for improving the Health sector in the state adding that GoI was committed to develop the Health being the core sector in the country.The Chief Minister was accompanied by his Principal Secretary SK Sandhu and Special Principal Secretary KJS Cheema.