MD Pediatrics de-recognised by MCI

Tahir Mushtaq

JAMMU, Feb 29: In the recent counseling of MD/MS/PG Diploma, Medical Council of India (MCI) has derecognized Government Medical College (GMC) Jammu for conducting Medical Degree course in Pediatrics from the this session.

Earlier there were only three seats for MD in Paediatrics in GMC Jammu whereas in GMC and SKIMS Srinagar there are total of 9 seats available for doing the same course.

According to the official sources, the Board of Professional Entrance Examination (BOPEE) has mentioned that that there are only three seats for admission to PG Medical Degree in GMC Jammu, whereas during counseling it was informed that there is no MD Paediatrics course here in Jammu, sources said.

“There is already a shortage of specialized doctors in various disciplines in Jammu and if this course is also disaffiliated by MCI then the day is not so far when the patients have to go outside Jammu for minute treatment” preferring anonymity said a doctor.

It is pertinent to mention here that three years back, the MCI had formally directed the GMC Jammu to complete the required minimum faculty and other norms or face a prohibition from running the course in near future.

But, no efforts were made by the government to hire the required faculty from outside or made other alternative arrangements.

Sources disclosed that under Article 370 the government has to do appointment on adhoc bases for six month of contract. In Jammu and Kashmir the lecturer has to go through thirteen year experience after which he is eligible for the post of Professor i.e. three year as Lecturer, five year in Assistant Professor and 5 year in Associate Professor.

It is important to note that according to the official sources, about five faculties are under the target of the MCI which include Neuro-surgery, Forsenic Medicine, Pediatrics, Psychiatry faculty and Cardiology as they don’t have trained manpower including teachers and infrastructure, despite investing crores in upgrading the Healthcare sector in past ten years.

These faculties are functional in two of the premier Medical Colleges of the state, Government Medical College (GMC), Jammu and Government Medical College (Srinagar), which are being upgraded to the level of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) under the ambitious Rs 200 crore project.

It is important to mention here that MCI had been regularly reminding the state Government to put in place proper faculties in various courses including psychiatry and cardiology at GMC Jammu. The psychiatry faculty till date lacked the post of Associate professor.

Minister for Medical Education R S Chib could not be contacted even after repeating attempts.

PDD Employees welfare funds failed to take off in J&K

Tahir Mushtaq

JAMMU, Feb 28: The much hyped Employees Welfare Fund scheme launched by Power Development Department (PDD) has not been implemented in Jammu region, despite the fact that employees are contributing money to the scheme for last six months.

Official sources said that while some compensation claims have been cleared in Kashmir valley, but in Jammu region none of the person injured during duty hours have received any help from the scheme since it was launched in February this year. The fund is aimed to cover 32,000 permanent employees of the department.

The scheme was launched under order No-77 of PDD in both the regions of the state to provide insurance cover to the permanent employees of the department, particularly who work in field.

“It was to cover the employees from Class IV to the Engineers and above who in case of death or injury are supposed to get assistance of Rs 3 lakh as immediate assistance”, said a PDD employee. The scheme also intends to provide free education and health benefits to the family members of the employee.

When a senior officer said, “We have taken up the issue with the concerned division and we will ensure that it gets implemented properly”. He said that department is making efforts to create effective mechanism so that employees get the benefits of the fund.

Sources said that seriousness of the officials could be gauged from the fact that even District Welfare Committees, Provincial Welfare Committees and Central Welfare Committee required to generate data of the workers working in respective zones have not been completed thus pushing back the basic objective of the scheme.

Each employee at present is contributing money ranging from Rs 200-to Rs 50 per month to the fund and State Government was also supposed to contribute to this scheme.

It is pertinent to mention here that it is not only the permanent employees who are facing the problems due to non-implementation of various schemes in the Department, but even the daily wagers who are backbone of the maintenance and distribution system have been denied their rights.

Nearly 5000 daily wagers working in PDD have so far not provided cover of Janata Insurance scheme, aimed at providing insurance to the daily rate workers who mostly work in the field.

“Though the state government has assured that it will be implemented but so far nothing has been done in this regard. In absence of any insurance cover most of the injured workers have not received any financial help from the department”, said Tarun Gupta, state president of Daily wagers Association.

Media boycott assembly session over remarks made by Speaker

Tahir Mushtaq

JAMMU, Feb 27: National and International media today boycotted the Jammu & Kashmir Legislative Assembly after Speaker Muhammad Akbar Lone remarked that media was under his control during the assembly session.

As the House started, Health Minister Sham Lal Sharma pointed out a article published in a local daily which has alleged bungling in the Health Department.

Appealing to the Speaker to seek an explanation from the newspaper, Sharma alleged that a section of media was carrying out a vilification campaign against state ministers.

Sharma was backed by PHE and Irrigation Minister Taj Mohideen, who said that serious allegations have been made against some ministers.

As many more Ministers expressed their reservation on the ‘media trail’ in recent past, the Speaker said “I will give a ruling that media should disclose their sources”.

The Speaker said that he would announce his ruling over the issue and give direction to the media.

Even Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Ali Mohammad Sagar also expressed his reservations over the "source- based stories" appearing in media.

When PDP MLA Nizam-uddin Bhat pointed that the matter cannot be decided in Assembly and it should be taken up with the Press Council of India, Lone said that "media is under his control and they will have to reveal their sources".

Protesting against this comment the mediamen walked out of the press gallery and boycotted the proceedings. They sat on dharna outside the Assembly complex in protest against the Speaker's comment.

The journalists demanded that Lone's statement be expunged from proceedings.

They said that the freedom of press cannot be undermined by the Speaker.

“They cannot gag the voice of the media by these tactics they cannot gag our voice. We always raise the issues of common and the corruption at various levels in the administration”, said a media person.

NRHM proving a white elephant, failed to achieve set targets due to lack of infrastructure

Tahir Mushtaq

JAMMU, Feb 26: While National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) was launched with much funfare in Jammu and Kashmir to cater the needs of rural population, but government is slow on fun utilization.

Sources said that the project has failed to achieve its set targets which and many of the schemes under the project have not reached the rural masses, mainly because health sector is facing acute infrastructural problems. .

According to the official record, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Government of India has released Rs 592.61 crore whereas the state government has sanctioned an amount of Rs 679.73 crore from the launch of NRHM, in which only Rs 573.02 crore has been used by different activities till date.

Sources said that if such huge amount of money is being sanctioned and used by the health department then why it doesn’t use properly so that the suitable results come out.

Reports further says that in the ten districts of Jammu province the total expenditure from the launch of NRHM till January 2012 are Rs 24,035.78 lacs which included District Health Societies (DHS) of Doda is Rs 1,209.05, Ramban Rs 678.15 lacs, Kishtwar Rs 762.70 lacs, Udhampur Rs 1,451.16 lacs, Reasi Rs 827.03 lacs, Jammu Rs 2,810.41 lacs, Samba Rs 884.94 lacs, Kathua Rs 1,692.09 lacs, Rajouri Rs 1,911.02 lacs and Poonch Rs 1,493.23 lacs whereas the other developmental infrastructure of Director Health Services, Jammu costs Rs 10,316.00 lacs.

 “Most of the Primary Health Centres (PHCs) and Sub Centres of the state are without proper infrastructure and even the number of medical and paramedical staff are not adequate to cope up the rush of patients” said a employee in health department.

 He added that due to the unavailability of the required facilities patients care suffers and spending crores of rupees by the government seems useless.

 It is pertinent to mention here that after being warned by the Government of India over mismanagement in the implementation of NRHM, the State Government has decided to establish field cells in all districts to monitor target achievements of the flagship health scheme.

Union Health Ministry had pulled up J&K for its lack of concern to keep track on utilization of resources under the centrally sponsored scheme, which had led to blockage of funds from time to time in the past.

Special field teams would conduct monthly reviews and submit their reports to respective Deputy Commissioners, who in turn would submit it to the higher authorities for necessary action.

J&K examining cases of 1,524 stone pelters, 100 police posts sanctioned in state

Tahir Mushtaq

JAMMU, Feb 24: Jammu and Kashmir is examining under its amnesty scheme the cases of 1,524 people allegedly involved in stone-pelting during the 2010 summer unrest in the Kashmir Valley. The 228 cases are being examined and orders for their withdrawal if falling within the ambit of the scheme are likely to be issued in the near future chief minister Omar Abdullah said on Friday.

In a written reply to a question by PDP MLA Peerzada Mansoor Hussain in the Assembly the CM said the amnesty scheme was launched on August 28 last year for youths and first-time offenders who were not involved in serious cases of crime during the unrest.

However no amnesty will be given to persons involved in heinous offences or in causing arson and damage to the public property he said adding that those found involved in such incidents after August 28 will also be out of the purview of this scheme.

Omar further said the initiative was launched to ensure that bureaucratic hurdles do not hamper their future prospects when it comes to applying for government jobs passport loans for education and self-employment or for pursuing higher education.

The CM also said that as many as 1,524 persons involved in 228 cases of stone-pelting have been prosecuted so far and probe is on in another 174 cases involving 1,180 persons.

Jammu and Kashmir Government today said over 100 police posts in the state have been sanctioned and 20 have been upgraded to police stations during the past two years. Of these, the highest number of 13 police posts were sanctioned in Jammu, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah informed the state Assembly in a written reply.

Reasi district will have 12 police posts, followed by 11 in Kishtwar district, and ten each in Kulgam and Bandipora districts, he said.

PDD seeking help of ADB to curtail power thefts in J&K

Tahir Mushtaq

JAMMU, Feb 20: After failure of e-meters installed by Power Development Department (PDD) to curtail the power thefts in the state, PDD in a last ditch effort has now decided to seek help of Asian Development Bank (ADB) to install High Voltage Distribution System to curtail theft of electricity.

According to the officials department has decided to approach the ADB for the financial assistance to take up the project in Jammu and Kashmir and a detailed report is being prepared for the same.

“Project is being formulated and these new distribution systems will be installed in every home and has better security features than e-meters. They will be integrated with meters”, said a officia. He further said that some new measures are being initiated to take strict action against the people involved in power thefts.

“We have already constituted special teams to conduct surprise inspections and take action like imposition of fines and snapping the power lines”, sources said.

Installation of meters was started in 2004, during Congress-PDP government to bring down Accumulated Transmission and Commercial (AT&C) losses to nationally accepted figure of 18 to 20 per cent from a whopping 60 per cent.

During 2004-05 about 24052 households were brought under the e-meters in J&K, similarly in 2005-06, 42129 meters were installed in both the regions of the state, later in 2006-07 it reached upto 149206 meters. However despite efforts the process failed to achieve its intended target and the entire process had not made much impact and power losses have continued to rise.

Further nearly 23,500 electronic meters were damaged by the mob across the Jammu province during the 63 days long agitation over Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) land row causing a loss of Rs 2.46 crore to the State exchequer and they are also being replaced by the department in phased manner.

Officials said that this new plan is being implemented as the department this year again failed to recover its revenue targets.

It had managed to recover Rs 733 crore from across the state while the target was Rs 1031 crore, which has further put strain on the department which had to purchase electricity for nearly Rs 1800 crore during the year.

Meanwhile power situation in Jammu region is getting worse as in many areas erratic power cuts is making people angry with the department which had claimed that metered areas will receive 24-hour power supply.

“Even though meters in our area have been installed about two years back but we still have to face power cuts, what is fun of these instruments”, said Sanjeev Sharma resident of New Plot.

HIV scare: People coming voluntarily for check up in J&K

Tahir Mushtaq

JAMMU, Feb 17: With widespread awareness campaign and education programmes launched by the government, about 33,000 people have voluntarily come forward for HIV/AIDS check up in last four years in Jammu and Kashmir.

According to the officials, although very few HIV positive cases have been reported among the people who came for the tests, but officials say that it shows about the level of awareness among the people regarding the deadly disease.

The state has so far recorded about 1,410 cases of HIV/AIDS victims but many NGO feel that the number could be higher as in some cases victims don’t come forward or reveal themselves due to stigma attached with the virus.

“Our efforts are bearing fruits and people have themselves visited our health institutions for check up. It allows us to monitor any possible victim and provide him necessary help”, said a official of J&K AIDS control society. “Awareness is the best defense against the disease which claim thousands of lives in the world every year”, he said.

According to the officials associated with the disease control programme, though the number of cases in the state are very few but keeping in view the migratory population coming to the state and the tourists visiting here there always remain a threat that the AIDS may infect people particularly the labourers, truck drivers and sex workers.

In its efforts to reach out to the youngsters, the society has also trained about 4,000 school teachers to impart education to the school children about the deadly disease and religious teachers including Maulvis and Granthis have also using their platform to spread the awareness.

Under the religious advocacy programme 840 Imam's and 500 Granthis have been trained across the state to reach out to the people. According to the official sources the threat of spread of disease is through the active drug users which has shown a upward trend during the militancy years, truck drivers who constantly move outside the state with their vehicle and unprotected sex.

Apart from this about 17000 workers of social welfare department, 2400 village heads have also been trained so far who would work as ambassadors for convening the messages in their respective areas.

Director said that as per the survey conducted by the society AIDS graph has shown reduction of 0.3 percent in high risk groups and 0.02 percent in general population in the state.

The state has eight voluntary counseling and testing centers, four each in Jammu and Srinagar while 22 blood banks across the state have been modernized to ensure safe blood transfusion.