Mangaluru: The Minister for Health and Family Welfare, U T Khader held a press meet at the Circuit House here, on June 10.
Addressing the mediapersons, Khader said that all MBBS students will have to serve in rural areas for atleast one year after they complete their studies. If any student refuses to serve in rural areas, they will not be given their course completion certificate.
“This year 6,675 students will be answering the MBBS examination and 2,988 students will complete their post graduation. We will utilize these doctors to serve in rural areas.”
“At present, there are 2,353 primary heath centers. We have 146 doctors in the Taluk hospital, 206 in community heath centers and 30 doctors in district hospitals. In the primary health centres, doctors are available from 8 am to 4 pm, which makes it difficult for the labour class. To avoid such situations, we will be extending the time to 8 pm. We will form district and state level committees to appoint doctors for rural areas.”
He further said that the cabinet has given approval to appoint 983 PG doctors, 350 MBBS doctors, nurses and other staff. “The coming days will witness a revolution in the health department,” he said.
In the Gram Panchayat elections, the Congress candidates of Ullal Constituency have won in large numbers. He congratulated all the winners in the Gram Panchayat elections and assured his wholehearted support.
Regarding Maggi noodles, Khader said that the state government sent the Maggi noodles for testing and is waiting for the results. “The state government has not taken any permanent decision on Maggi yet. For any order to be passed on the Maggi issue, scientific justification is needed. We have sent samples to CFTRI Mysuru but due to some technical issues, they have rejected the samples and provided us a list of other labs. We have sent the samples to two centres. Robust Technology sent back the report which stated that the lead content is in permissible limits. Another lab has also sent a report and they too have certified that a very negligible amount of MSG (0.05) exists in the samples. According to the Food Safety and Standard Act, there is no clarity in the act, and due to this ambiguity, we have sent the report to the FSSAI and are awaiting for their response. Till then, we will follow the guidelines of the FSSAI to temporarily stop the manufacture or sale of Maggi. For us, the company is not important; we need to know whether Maggi is safe to eat or not. We will prepare Maggi in our department and test if it is safe to be consumed or not.”
He also said, “For the Talapadi Highway – Durgaparameshwari Temple – Pilikur – Kinya Road, Rs 1.6 crore has been sanctioned; the construction of the road will be started soon. From Derlakatte main road – Adkalpadpu – Mangaluru University – Baruva Parande road, the government has given permission to prepare a DPR of Rs 2.5 crore. Once the DPR is completed, the government will sanction Rs 2.5 crore for the construction of the said road”.