PUDUCHERRY: Announcing a plethora of welfare measures, Chief Minister N Rangasamy on Wednesday said that free higher education will be provided to all students from Puducherry admitted through the Centralised Admission Committee of the government (CENTAC) in engineering, medical and other professional courses. The fees for all these students will be borne by the government.
Winding up the budget discussions in the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday, the Chief Minister said that the services of government doctors who have been working on contract basis for 10 years and more will be regularised against vacancies in the Department of Health and Family Welfare. In addition, the services of doctors, nurses, lab technicians, auxiliary nurses cum midwifes (ANMs) and other paramedical workers working under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) for 10 years will be regularised against vacancies in the department by giving them preference.
The remuneration of intern doctors doing house jobs in government medical college will be raised to Rs 20,000 from Rs 5000 per month, said the Chief Minister.
The wages of employees working on voucher payment basis in PWD and other government departments will be raised to Rs 10,000 a month and will be paid through the Department of Directorate of Accounts and Treasuries, said the Chief Minister.
The funeral expenses for people from the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes would be raised from Rs 15,000 to Rs 25,000, while the assistance for pregnant women will be raised from Rs 18,000 to Rs 25,000. The old age pension for Adi Dravida people would be raised by Rs 500.
The freedom fighters pension would be raised from Rs 9000 to Rs 10,000.
The pension for journalists would be raised by Rs 500, to provide a pension of Rs 8000. The government is also considering providing Rs 10 lakhs each to the families of three journalists who died of COVID-19. The decision on relief for families which lost their bread winner due to COVID will be decided after the case in this regard is disposed of by the High Court.
The government will provide Rs 2 crores as local area development fund for MLAs in two instalments of Rs 1 crore each, he added.