Main Page                                                 Archives

 

PM approves 3 pc quota for disabled in IAS

     New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has issued orders to reserve 3 per cent of the IAS jobs in CSE 2005-06 for persons with disability. This order of his will facilitate the physically challenged in clearing the IAS exams. According to his order, 3 of the 85 posts for IAS this year will now go to persons with disabilities such as low vision or blindness, hearing impairment and cerebral palsy, an official release said today. Other ministries controlling other central services - the Indian Police Service, Indian Foreign Service and Indian Forest Service - have also been told to examine the applicability of the Physical Disability Act, 1995, and reservation of 3 per cent in these services. They have been asked to submit their report within three months to the Appointments Committee of Cabinet in three months. Orders in this regard came after the PM approved the appointment of M Satish, a physically challenged candidate who qualified the examination in 2002, to the Indian Revenue Service. Earlier, Satish, who secured rank 249 in the examination, had written to Singh for being denied the IRS for being physically challenged (right hand polio). An inquiry was carried and his name was cleared for allocation to the IRS. He has now been asked to join the training course. The release further added, with this decision of the government, the higher civil services, non-technical Group A and Group B services have now been opened up for the first time to physically challenged persons.

Tributes to Bose (Go To Top)    

      New Delhi: The nation on Sunday paid homage and tribute to freedom-fighter Subhash Chandra Bose on his 108th birth anniversary. Bose led his Indian National Army (INA) against the British army on the Burma border during the Second World War when India was under British rule. He reportedly died in a plane crash over Japan in 1945 before India achieved independence in August 1947. In the Indian capital, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Lal Krishna Advani and other lawmakers gathered in the Central Hall of Parliament to offer their tributes to Bose. After escaping a British colonial government imprisonment sentence for his role in the freedom movement, Bose left India in 1943 and took help from European and Asian fascist and communist leaders in his struggle against the colonial regime. Bose's political life was mired in controversies, as he was opposed to Mahatma Gandhi's non-violent means to oust the British. Bose reportedly died in a plane crash under mysterious circumstances. The world is yet to unravel the mystery.

A boon for medicare in India's north-east  (Go To Top)
by Sutirtha Sanyal

     Shillong: The soon to be functional North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS) at a sprawling 273 acre campus at Maurdiangdiang, abnout 12 kilometers from ehre is seen as a boon not only for Meghalaya but for the entire North-East. Though NEIGRHIMS started functioning as an interim facility in 1998 with special emphasis on gastrointestinal and cardiac problems, the new facility is coming up as part of the government's plan to provide healthcare facilities for the entire north east. "NEIGRIHMS is very important for the North East. It will cater to the requirements of the people of the entire North-East. We don't want people of the North East to go to other parts of the country for treatment," said Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Anbumani Ramadoss while reviewing the progress of the new set up at Mawdiangdiang. Even officials at the interim facility are looking forward to the new set up with bated breadth and very excited to render their services to the patients there. "The interim hospital cannot fulfill all the requirements. We cannot treat critical cases at this facility. But the new set up will solve all our problems," said Dr. C. Daniala, the Associate Professor of Radiology and Imaging at NEIGRIHMS, and who along with Dr. Vandana, who was one of the earliest doctors to join the interim hospital. "The new set up will also enable us digitization of all data we will also be able to perform MRI, DSA etc," added Dr Daniala.

     The radiology and the pathology departments provide backing service to the gastrointestinal and the cardiology department as survey have revealed that most of the people in the north east suffer from gastrointestinal and cardiac diseases. "People here generally suffer from gastro-intestinal problems because of infective diseases, poor hygeine, water, malnutrition as well as high level of alcohol consumption. And the common diseases are viral hepatitis or jaundice, T.B of the abdomen, stomach cancer, cancer of the oesophagus, liver ailments like cirrhosis," said Dr. Damal Chatri, Assistant Professor of Gastroenterology at NEIGRIHMS. He further said that the new facility would not only enable them to see more patients and carry out more endoscopy, around 15-20 cases each day compared to six or eight odd cases they handle now, but also enable them to carry out more sophisticated and hi- tech procedures required for treating ailments. "We get around 80-100 patients each day and carry out about six to eight endoscopy procedures. At the new facility, we expect around 150-200 patients each day," added Dr. Chatri. Even the cardiology department is looking forward to offer specialized cardiac treatment to the people of entire north east at the new facility at NEIGRIHMS.

      "People here generally suffer from hypertension, pneumatic heart diseases and congenital heart defects. Presently, we cannot offer total cardiac care at the interim hospital. At the new hospital we will also be able to perform cardiac operations and also have a cath lab necessary for carrying out cardiac catheterization, coronary angioplasty and devices," said Dr Neil Bardotor, the Assistant Professor of Cardiology at NEIGRIHMS. Not only will the new set up offer specialized services in areas like cardiology, Gastroenterology and other areas like cancer, neurology and mental illness, it will also be a seat of learning for aspiring doctors of the future. To be set up on the lines of AIIMS, New Delhi, NEIGRIHMS will also impart PG courses in due time. "NEIGRIHMS is an ambitious project and will have tie up with other institutes in the North East as well as with premier institutes like AIIMS, PGI and NIMHANS," said Ramadoss. "Also the 100 bedded cancer research centre, the third such facility in the reagion would be of immense help to the cancer patients, here, as the disease is prevalent in the North Eastern states," Ramadoss added. The heige boast to specialized care to the people of North East in areas, like cardiology, gastroenterology, cancer research, neurology, all at minimal costs not with standing the fact that NEIGRIHMS will also serve as a seat of learning on the lines of AIIMS and have tie up with medical institutes of the country will go a long way towards providing health care facilities to the people of North East.