Non-K'taka med students may do rural service in home states

The State government will seek the Centre’s permission to allow non-Karnataka students pursuing medical degrees in Karnataka to complete their compulsory rural service in their home states.

Interacting with reporters here on Friday, Health and Family Welfare Minister U T Khader said that he would be writing to the Union health minister in that regard. Under the Karnataka Compulsory Service Training by Candidates Completed Medical Courses Act, 2012, MBBS students and postgraduate students must serve in rural areas for a year.
The minister said that a large number of students from Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and other states were pursuing medical degrees in Karnataka. In October and November, as many as 2,400 MBBS and 300 postgraduate medical students will graduate from various medical colleges.

These many students would be more than enough to meet the required number of doctors in government hospitals. Hence, the government is willing to allow students from outside Karnataka to complete their compulsory service in their home states once they go through the online counselling process, the minister said. But the students’ home states would have to pay them the stipend and issue No Objection Certificates, after which Karnataka would certify the doctors.

Karnataka pays MBBS students Rs 38,889 a month and PG students Rs 42,000.
 To facilitate this, the government allocated supplementary budget of Rs 185 crore. By the end of five years, as many as 5,000 outgoing students will be taking up rural service, which means each government hospital will have at least two doctors.
Doctors will also be diverted towards ANMs (Auxillary Nurse Males) and school health teams.

He also said that MBBS students, who secured PG admission, would be allowed to stall the compulsory service until they completed higher education. But they will be required to go back and complete the remaining months of rural service.

Deadline to be extended
The August 9 deadline for receiving applications from MBBS and PG students for permanent government service will be extended, Khader said.

 The government is also making another relaxation. It is giving two-year exemption to candidates to take up the compulsory Kannada language examination to facilitate non-Karnataka students. Also, after a gap of 20 years, the department has called in for applications for 87 posts of dentists.

Dengue/malaria
To combat the mosquito menace, the Health Department is considering asking the Public Works Department (PWD) to make it mandatory for adding insect repellant solutions in the curing water at construction sites.

These sites are major breeding grounds for mosquitoes. The government will stipulate that this exercise be made mandatory at the building sanction plan stage itself, the minister said.