Ramadoss soften his stand on rural service extension plan

NI Wire

New Delhi

Fri, 07 Dec 2007: 

Dec 07:  The much debated Union Health Ministry decision to extend the Medical course for another year did not go well with the medical fraternity.

The sa has been put on ice by the ministry as the spell was to create sufficient Doctors to serve the rural part of India by making it compulsory for all medical students from the next academic session.

The students chose a unique way to get the attention of Union Health minister by flooding him with marriage proposals to let the minister accompany them during there stay in rural places.

The students with proposals said that in case of less salary they needed a person like Anbumani Ramadoss to help them wad through their difficult time.

The girls said that let Ramadoss be their husband and stay in village to support them.

Ramadoss on Thursday said that as far there is no proposal on increasing the duration of medical courses but the only proposal laid on the table for discussion is compulsory service in rural places.

“A committee headed by Dr Sambasiva Rao is surveying the opinion of doctors in about 20 states. The committee is yet to submit its report. The government has taken no decision on it so far,” he informed.

While justifying this step taken by centre he said, “The MBBS fee in a government college in Tamil Nadu is Rs 4000 per year while the same in a private college amounts to Rs 4 lakhs. The tuition fee in AIIMS is Rs 210 per year, while it is Rs 125 in JIPMER."

“If I ask students to do public service for one year, am I wrong? He asked.

Ramadoss said on Thursday, “It's not that MBBS will become one-year longer. Students will have one-year internship within their five-and-a-half-year MBBS programme. They will have to spend four months each in a public health centre, community health cell and district headquarters and will serve under the district health officer. They will be given a monthly stipend of Rs 8,000-10,000 as an incentive.”

Earlier the government to meet the shortage of doctors in rural area announced that it is planning to make rural service compulsory for all the doctors completing the course. Under it they planned to increase the course duration by one year. This announcement created a massive protest by the students across the country.