Govt plans international exchange scheme for PG medicos

Meritorious postgraduate medical and dental students from Karnataka will get to travel across the globe, free of cost, as part of an exchange programme the government is planning, Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar said Wednesday.

The exchange programme will be launched from the 2020-21 academic year, Sudhakar said during his interaction with DH.

"We want to send meritorious students to the best universities across the globe, and students from there will be invited here. They will get the best clinical exposure and learn the best methodology, techniques, surgical apparatus and so on," Sudhakar said. "This is an innovative programme and will be the first such programme in the country."

According to Sudhakar, students will not have to pay anything for the exchange programme. "This will be a scholarship that will be funded by our department's resources," he said.

In the 2019-20 academic year, Karnataka offered 2,938 postgraduate seats.

To encourage doctors to work in government medical colleges, especially rural areas, Sudhakar said pay scales under the 7th Pay Commission will be implemented in his department. "We are also looking at a model where doctors who spend more time serving in rural areas will get promotions faster. I've seen this work in Thailand," he said.

Seat blocking

The government will introduce an Aadhaar-based biometric admission process to counter the seat-blocking menace, Sudhakar said. "The biometrics will be used at 2-3 stages during the process to prevent duplication of students," he said.

Sudhakar is even considering hiking the penalty for such surrender of seats to Rs 50 lakh from the existing Rs 5 lakh.

Seat-blocking refers to a practice where a student surrenders a seat at the last minute, allowing a private college to sell it for a higher price.

Medical college for Kanakapura?

Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa has agreed to set up a government medical college at Kanakapura after a push from Congress' D K Shivakumar, Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar said. Shivakumar was up in arms after the ruling BJP stalled the setting up of the college in Kanakapura, which he represents, and sanctioned one in Ramanagara instead. The Kanakapura college was approved when the Congress-JD(S) was in power. Shivakumar even met the chief minister, recently, on this. "I have received a letter from the chief minister on sanctioning the college in Kanakapura," Sudhakar said.