New medical colleges in Bihar soon: Ramadoss

Opening of new medical colleges and hospitals in Bihar, ban on smoking inside a public and private building from Gandhi Jayanti are the two pledges that Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss announced on the World Population Day in Patna on Friday. For the former a decision is under consideration of the central government and for the latter a dateline he already issued Friday.

The Health Minister said new medical colleges and hospitals would soon be opened in the state. The proposal of which is under consideration of the Central government. The cause of the ongoing delay, he said, was because of non-availability of basic infrastructure at the proposed site. A central government team, who visited the proposed sites recently, had said that.

The announcements were made at a time when Medical Council of India (MCI) had refused to augment the annual intake of students in Patna Medical College from 100 to 150 and in Shri Krishna Medical College in Muzaffarpur from 50 to 100.

We are hopeful of setting up new (medical) colleges (in Bihar) as soon as possible,” Ramadoss said.

With a population of over 83 million, Bihar has only six government and one private medical college and hospitals.

Bihar is one of the 18 high focus states to be brought under the umbrella of NRHM (National Rural Health Mission) culminating into a manifold enhance in the allocation of funds in the health sector.

AIIMS at Patna is one of the six AIIMS like institutions being set up under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthaya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY).

Ramadoss at this occasion also said smoking inside a public or private building would be cognizable offence from October 2 and the people found smoking in these places would be punished under law, the necessary rules for which had been framed for the enforcement of the law. Even homes would come under barred zones to check passive smoking, the minister said at a function on the occasion of the World Population Day.

Terming tobacco as the greatest danger for health, the minister said more than 10 lakh lives annually and 14 percent of school children become its victim. Ramadoss expressed hope that awareness campaign would fetch the desired outcomes and the National Tobacco Preventive Mission would achieve its objective of bringing down the number of tobacco cases to a minimal.

The Health Minister also appeared critical on multinational soft drink and its increasing hold on the market in the country. He advised children to avoid soft drink as it bottle contains seven tea spoons of sugar. He also advised them to stay away from junk foods. However, he ruled out banning such soft drinks.

The Union Health Minister was visiting Patna at the World Population Day Friday on July 11.

World Population Day

World Population Day is an annual event celebrated on July 11 to raise awareness of global population issues.

The Day was established by the Governing Council of the United Nations Development Programme in 1989 that coincided with populations that reached five billion on July 11, 1987.