Maharashtra government has taken some innovative steps in its budget to make health an important issue in daily life

Most of the aliments (blood pressure, diabetes and heart diseases) are due to lack of proper lifestyle. As a first step in promoting healthy lifestyle through physical exercise the government will establish public gyms across the state. As part of its streamlining exercise, the government has merged the National Rural Health Mission, National Urban Health Mission and 11 other disease-control programmes into the National Health Mission and provided an outlay of Rs 1,996 crore.

The budget unveiled on Wednesday also exempted sales tax levy on certain medicines required for the treatment of cancer. The list of medicine will be notified.  Similarly the tax on the guide wire used to treat heart patients has been reduced from 12.5% to 5%.

The government has provided Rs 300 crore for the Rajiv Gandhi Jeevandayi Arogya Yojana.

To ensure transport to hospitals and reduce infant-mortality rate, the government will provide 70 ambulances for newborn infants.

A national institute of pharmacy education and research is to be set up at Nagpur and a comprehensive master plan for developing the city's government medical college has been prepared.

The government plans to improve facilities to upgrade postgraduate medical programmes in government medical colleges at Pune, Aurangabad, Akola, Ambejogai, Solapur, Miraj, Sangli, Dhule, Yavatmal, Latur and Nagpur and has provided Rs 20 crore for the purpose.