Congress leader Renu Jogi on Tuesday demanded in the Chhattisgarh Assembly that a three-year medical course be introduced once again for catering to the need for employing medical personnel in the rural areas.
In his reply to Jogi during a calling attention motion, Health Minister Amar Agrawal said that the Central Government has sent a proposal to the Medical Council of India (MCI) for seeking permission to start such course. He said that as soon as the permission was received by the Centre to start such a course, the Chhattisgarh Government would launch such a course.
Agrawal said that earlier a three-year course for ‘Medical Assistant’ was launched in Chhattisgarh which was completed by 1,300 students. At the time when the students had passed the ‘Medical Assistant’ course, there was no service rule made. After the BJP Government came to power, a service rule was formed and those who qualified in the course were offered jobs on a contract basis, the Minister said.
He said that out of the total number of students who completed the course, half of them were helped by Indian Medical Association (IMA) get their jobs regularised while the process of regularisation of the jobs of the rest is underway. It was the Chhattisgarh Government which had recommended starting of such a course to the Centre which had moved a proposal with the MCI for seeking permission to start the course, Agrawal stated.