NEW DELHI:
More PG Seats in Psychiatry This Year
Considering the need for more psychiatrists in the country, the Centre has decided to increase the number of Post Graduate medical seats in the discipline and the Medical Council of India has given the go ahead for the same. According to a source, the teacher-student ratio for PG seats in psychiatry will be increased to 1:4 from the present 1:3 in the coming academic session. This will give way to almost 40 per cent increase in the capacity for student intake in PG seats in the discipline. A source said that though the government wanted to increase the ratio to 1:5, the Medical Council of India stuck to the 1:4 ratio. Increasing the ratio to 1:5 would have resulted in 66 per cent increase in the total number of seats. The Centre has already decided to increase Post Graduate medical seats in both government and private colleges by 501 for the 2016-17 academic session. The MCI had recommended an increase in PG seats to the Health Ministry after inspection of the colleges that applied for augmenting seat availability. According to the World Health Organisation, there is only one doctor per 1,700 citizens in India. The WHO stipulates a minimum ratio of 1:1,000.
Kolkata
4 Kamduni Rape Convicts File Appeal
Four men, who were sentenced for brutally raping and murdering a 20-year-old college student at Kamduni village in North 24 Parganas, moved the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday challenging the verdict of the lower court. Of the four, two were awarded capital punishment and two were sentenced to life by a lower court last month. Though three accused were given capital punishment and three sentenced to life, only four convicts have appealed in the High Court. Ansar Ali and Amin Ali (both sentenced to death) and Gopal Naskar and Sheikh Imanul Islam moved the High Court praying that they were not involved in the rape and murder of the young female student. The main accused, Saiful Ali, is yet to move the HC. Two men, Rafiqul Gazi and Noor Ali, though chargesheeted by the CID, were acquitted due to lack of evidence by the court. A city court on January 30 pronounced the verdict against the six accused for raping and killing the woman on June 7, 2013. The case, dubbed the Nirbhaya case of Bengal, has created a much furore across the State. The victim’s family and activist groups have also decided to move the HC against the acquittal of two accused men.
Girl’s Death Not Due to Drug: Centre
The Union Health Ministry has dismissed reports that the death of an eight-year old girl in Uttarakhand was due to administration of a de-worming drug which the Centre launched last week as part of a special programme. According to reports, more than 50 children fell ill after being administered Albendazole in Uttarakhand on February 10. One of the victims, an eight-year-old girl, died at Dr Sushila Tiwari Government Medical College Hospital on Monday. The de-worming drug is “safe and effective”, it said. According to the report from CMO Uttarakhand, the child had been admitted to the Sushila Tiwari Hospital at Haldwani on February 13 with aspiration pneumonia, and was in a critical condition.