Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad being greeted with a japi and xorai at the seminar in Guwahati on Saturday. Picture by Eastern Projections
Guwahati, June 21: Health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad today announced special concessions for the Northeast to boost healthcare facilities, striking an emotional chord with the region that he said shares similar problems, including insurgency, faced by his home state of Jammu and Kashmir.
For the Northeast’s medical graduates, Azad announced additional marks in the All India Post- Graduate Medical Entrance Examination if they served in the rural areas of their states. Those who will serve for one, two and three years will get an additional 10, 20 and 30 per cent marks respectively.
Azad said several concessions would be made to create a range of healthcare facilities including setting up of medical colleges for doctors, keeping in mind the various bottlenecks and problems like inaccessibility and insurgency faced by the Northeast.
He made the announcement at Immunity 2010, a daylong seminar on initiatives taken by the UPA government in the health sector for development of the region. It was organised by the Assam unit of the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), the youth wing of the Congress, here this morning.
“The ministry has reduced the minimum area required for setting up a medical college from 25 to 20 acres across the country. For the northeastern states, it would not be necessary to have 20 acres at a single location. Considering the scarcity of vast stretches of land at one single place because of the hilly terrain of the region, a medical college could be set up at two different locations within a 10 km radius,” he said.
Azad said his ministry had reduced the requisite bed capacity for any hospital in the region from 300 to 200 with bed occupancy slashed from 80 per cent to 60 per cent. The new medical colleges would require only six laboratories instead of the all-India requirement of 14, he announced.
“I am from Jammu and Kashmir which faces similar problems to those faced by the Northeast, like difficult terrain, insurgency, a sense of aloofness among the people from mainstream India. So I not only understand the problems of the region, but feel them from my heart. The Centre will give funds to the state governments in the region to enable them to give extra monetary incentives to doctors working in inaccessible areas,” the former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir said.
Azad said he would highlight the Maram scheme of the Assam government during a conference of Indian-origin doctors in the US scheduled to be held in Washington next week. Under this scheme, a patient gets Rs 75 when admitted to a government hospital. Chief minister Tarun Gogoi said Dispur would soon launch a healthcare scheme for the students.
Incentives for N-E docs Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad being greeted with a japi and xorai at the seminar in Guwahati on Saturday. Picture by Eastern Projections
Guwahati, June 21: Health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad today announced special concessions for the Northeast to boost healthcare facilities, striking an emotional chord with the region that he said shares similar problems, including insurgency, faced by his home state of Jammu and Kashmir.
For the Northeast’s medical graduates, Azad announced additional marks in the All India Post- Graduate Medical Entrance Examination if they served in the rural areas of their states. Those who will serve for one, two and three years will get an additional 10, 20 and 30 per cent marks respectively.
Azad said several concessions would be made to create a range of healthcare facilities including setting up of medical colleges for doctors, keeping in mind the various bottlenecks and problems like inaccessibility and insurgency faced by the Northeast.
He made the announcement at Immunity 2010, a daylong seminar on initiatives taken by the UPA government in the health sector for development of the region. It was organised by the Assam unit of the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), the youth wing of the Congress, here this morning.
“The ministry has reduced the minimum area required for setting up a medical college from 25 to 20 acres across the country. For the northeastern states, it would not be necessary to have 20 acres at a single location. Considering the scarcity of vast stretches of land at one single place because of the hilly terrain of the region, a medical college could be set up at two different locations within a 10 km radius,” he said.
Azad said his ministry had reduced the requisite bed capacity for any hospital in the region from 300 to 200 with bed occupancy slashed from 80 per cent to 60 per cent. The new medical colleges would require only six laboratories instead of the all-India requirement of 14, he announced.
“I am from Jammu and Kashmir which faces similar problems to those faced by the Northeast, like difficult terrain, insurgency, a sense of aloofness among the people from mainstream India. So I not only understand the problems of the region, but feel them from my heart. The Centre will give funds to the state governments in the region to enable them to give extra monetary incentives to doctors working in inaccessible areas,” the former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir said.
Azad said he would highlight the Maram scheme of the Assam government during a conference of Indian-origin doctors in the US scheduled to be held in Washington next week. Under this scheme, a patient gets Rs 75 when admitted to a government hospital. Chief minister Tarun Gogoi said Dispur would soon launch a healthcare scheme for the students.
