Date:06/01/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/01/06/stories/2006010607580400.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

Rs. 642 crores for health centres

Staff Reporter

BANGALORE: Health and Family Welfare Minister N. Cheluvaraya Swamy said on Thursday that a Rs. 642-crore project for improving primary and community health centres will be launched next month.

Addressing presspersons, he said the project will be implemented in five years, and Rs. 129 crore will be spent in the first year, beginning next month. The Cabinet has approved the project, he added.

Mr. Cheluvaraya Swamy said taluk hospitals will be upgraded and they will have 100 beds. Twenty-five hospitals in northern and southern parts of the State will benefit. He has taken up with Finance Minister P.G.R. Sindhia the question of releasing more funds for his department in the budget.

The Minister said the department is directly recruiting 2,807 paramedical personnel, such as nurses, junior assistants, x-ray technicians, pharmacists, and ophthalmic assistants, in a month or two. District health officers have been asked to take up recruitment. Of 600 persons selected for appointment as doctors on contract basis, only 300 have reported for duty. He is initiating measures to appoint about 500 doctors by May. About 180 specialist doctors will also be recruited after amending the Cadre and Recruitment Rules. As many 275 drivers will be engaged, he added.

He said the Janani Suraksha Scheme will be launched next week. Under the scheme, women who undergo Caesarean section in government hospitals will receive Rs. 1,500.

Following complaints of bribery, Hemagiri Hegde and Girija, doctors in the Hajee Sir Ismail Sait Gosha Hospital at Shivajinagar, Bangalore, have been placed under suspension.