Shimla: All primary health centres (PHCs) in Himachal Pradesh will be staffed with required doctors within the next six months as the state govt has already recruited 162 medics and interview process for the recruitment of 236 medical officers is currently underway. This was stated by chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu in the legislative assembly on Thursday.Addressing the House during question hour on the fifth day of the ongoing budget session of the legislative assembly, the CM also revealed that over 100 posts of assistant professors in various medical colleges were being filled through written test. He accepted that except the Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC), Shimla, and Tanda Medical College in Kangra, the other four govt medical colleges in the state just had buildings and equipment, and lacked required faculty. To address this, the govt plans to relax recruitment norms for assistant and associate professors and increase postgraduate seats by nearly 200. Sukhu said the state govt was spending nearly Rs 3,000 crore on equipping various hospitals in Himachal with the best medical machinery and would explore health tourism opportunities over the next year. Earlier, while responding to a question by Sundernagar MLA Rakesh Jamwal, health and family welfare minister Colonel Dhani Ram Shandil (retd) informed the House that every year 870 MBBS and 247 postgraduate trainees passed out from the state medical colleges. He added that in the health department, 2,337 posts of doctors and 683 posts of specialist doctors had been sanctioned whereas under the department of medical education and research, 81 posts of MBBS doctors and 2,060 posts of MD/MS and DNB faculty members were sanctioned in various govt medical colleges and hospitals.Clarity on FIR against MLAs Deputy chief minister Mukesh Agnihotri raised a point during the motion of thanks on the governor’s address, urging the Speaker to give a ruling on whether FIRs could be filed against legislators for protests within the legislative assembly premises. He cited an unprecedented case from Feb 2021, when five Congress MLAs, including himself, faced FIR for blocking the governor’s exit during the previous BJP govt.Cong leader arrest by Delhi policeCongress legislators Rakesh Kalia and Sudarshan Babloo, during the zero hour, raised concerns over the recent arrest of party leader Anil Dadwal from Gagret by the Delhi Police, following a social media post critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Kalia noted that Dadwal was initially summoned under a bailable offence, but was later sent to Tihar Jail after non-bailable sections were added to the FIR. Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania assured that the state govt would take it up with the Delhi Police.BJP protests ‘mafia raj’BJP legislators led by leader of opposition Jairam Thakur staged protest and raised slogans within the assembly premises before the start of the session, alleging the prevalence of ‘mafia raj’ in the hill state, citing issues related to drugs, mining, forest resources, and liquor trade. Policy for multi-task workers The state govt will come up with a policy to regulate the service conditions of multi-task workers (MTWs) employed across various departments, who are currently receiving a monthly remuneration of Rs 5,500. Responding to a question by BJP MLA Satpal Singh Satti, who also urged to enhance the salary of MTWs, the CM added that there were MTWs and outsourced employees in various departments and the state govt was considering the issue under the ambit of law.LPG shortage During the zero hour, Lahaul Spiti MLA Anuradha Rana raised concerns regarding the shortage of LPG cylinders and its adverse impact on the tourism and hospitality sectors in the hill state, attributing the issue to the ongoing US-Iran tensions. She added that the current LPG refill schedule allowed 25 days for urban areas and 45 days for rural areas. Emphasising that rural households often run out of LPG cylinders within a month, Rana urged that the refill period in rural areas be aligned with urban areas with the Central govt’s intervention.
