Patna, Mar 4 ( ) Bihar Health Minister Mangal Pandey said on Friday that the state government was providing financial assistance to those below annual income of 2.5 lakh for treatment of serious ailments including cancer. Replying to a starred question of Congress member Ajit Sharma in the state assembly, Pandey said that the fund is sanctioned in the meeting held every Wednesday and the same is directly released to the hospitals concerned treating the patient. Speaking about the seriousness of the disease like cancer, he said that earlier the patients were facing hardships in getting the financial aid for their treatment at Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai Keeping in mind this hardships he said that a special help desk of Bihar has been set up there and an officer of Under Secretary rank has been deployed from where the fund is immediately released for the treatment of the patients concerned. Replying to a short notice question of Ramanuj Prasad, Pandey elaborated in detail about the facilities available at Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences ( IGIMS) and said that the institute at present has 1130 beds and would be upgraded into 3000 bed Hospital within the next three years. He said that the construction of building with 500 bed capacity in the institute was at the final stage whereas another building with the capacity of 1200 beds was under construction . Pandey said that a Regional Institute of Opthalmology with a capacity of 200 beds was also being constructed at an expenditure of Rs 186 crore in the institute and the Cancer Institute has already been constructed there. Through his supplementary, Prasad tried to draw the attention of the house towards the hardships being faced by the patients in dearth of bed at IGIMS. He also said that the middleman and touts were roaming freely in the institute and take the patient to get treatment in private hospital of their interest. Pandey replying to a starred question of Anita Devi set that 24047 vial of factor 9 injections have been supplied to the districts and 7239 vial was available. Through her question Anita Devi said that the injection of haemophilia was not available in the districts and the poor patients have to buy it from outside . She said that the cost of one injection was Rs 15 to 16 thousand and the poor patients cannot afford it. She demanded from the Minister to make it available at district level. RS BM