Tag: Sushil Kumar Modi

Separate medical university to be set up in Bihar

Source: hindustantimes.com

Bihar will have a separate full-fledged medical university to cater to all medical, nursing and paramedical courses.

Announcing this, deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi on Monday said the government was working in this direction and had constituted a four-member committee to explore possibilities to have an independent medical university.

He said the idea was to carve out medical education from the Aryabhatta Knowledge University (AKU), which currently mentors all technical and medical institutions, and to create a separate medical university, which will have under its ambit all medical, ayurvedic, unani, paramedical and nursing colleges. The AKU will then cater to only technical institutes like engineering colleges, added Modi.

Speaking at a function to mark the completion of first year of the Ayushman Bharat universal health scheme, he said Bihar should strive to improve its coverage, both in terms of treatment and issuance of e-golden cards to its beneficiaries.

He said Bihar would open 11 new medical colleges, which would wipe out the shortage of doctors in the next four-five years. At the same time, Modi was critical of the Congress, for opening only four medical colleges in undivided Bihar since independence during the nearly-65-years period it governed the country.

The deputy CM said the Centre was committed to opening 75 new medical colleges in India this year and asked the health minister to avail of the opportunity by giving 20 acre land and making a formal request on a first-come-first-serve basis.

Expressing concern over booming population, he also urged the health department to study the total fertility rate (TFR – child bearing capacity of a woman) pattern in West Bengal, where it was as low as 1.6, whereas the same was 3.2 in Bihar.

The TFR in other southern and western states like Tamil Nadu (1.6), Maharashtra and Karnataka (1.6 each) was also less, while those in Uttar Pradesh (3), Madhya Pradesh (2.7), Rajasthan (2.6), Jharkhand (2.5) and Assam (2.3) was higher.

Earlier, state health minister Mangal Pandey said the state had to achieve much more than what it had achieved in the first year under Ayushman Bharat. He expressed concern at the fact that only 147 private health facilities were empanelled under the scheme in Bihar against 18,000 private centres in the country.

Highlighting efforts to improve health services in the state, Pandey said the government would issue the tender this week for the ₹5,500-crore project to convert the existing 2,500-bed Patna Medical College Hospital into 5,400 beds over the next seven-eight years. He also said nine district hospitals would be upgraded and 22 others would get CT scan facility.

Earlier, state principal secretary, health, Sanjay Kumar said this would be a year of recruitment for the health department as it would recruit 2,425 doctors in addition to 4,000 general duty medical officers as also 9,130 grade A nurses to tide over the shortage of doctors and nurses.

Health secretary and chief executive officer of Bihar health authority, Lokesh Kumar Singh, gave a brief overview of the Ayushman Bharat scheme in the state.

‘Hindustan Poorvoday’: Amit Shah to deliver roadmap for turning east into India’s growth engine

Source: hindustantimes.com

Home Minister Amit Shah, law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghuvar Das and Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar Sushil Kumar Modi along with other regional politicians and achievers will come together in Ranchi on Wednesday to dwell on a roadmap for transforming the east and making its states, including Jharkhand and Bihar, the new engines of Indian economy.

The one day brainstorming session, being organised under the banner of ‘Hindustan Poorvoday’, will also see these leaders exchange views on the eastern states’, particularly, mineral-rich Jharkhand’s present contributions to the Indian economy and its potential to increase it manifolds in the near future.

The event will be inaugurated by the Union Minister for Law and Justice, Communications and Electronics and Information Technology, Ravi Shankar Prasad at 10 am at the local Radison Blue hotel. He will present his views on the economic opportunities and challenges for Bihar and Jharkhand. Home Minister Amit Shah will make the valedictory address incorporating the growth roadmap for these states.

Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghuvar Das will throw light on the contributions made by the state in India’s overall development.

Jharkhand Congress chief Dr. Rameshwar Oraon and former Chief Minister and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha’s (JMM) Working President Hemant Soren will present his views on the need to protect the natural resources–waters, jungles and the land– of the state while pushing it along the developmental path. The tribal societies of the eastern states and their needs and challenges will also be discussed.

The daylong event will also see achievers from different walks of the society, including sports, talk about the eastern state’s appetite to throw up sporting talent, who regularly shine on the national and the international stage.

The event will also see several ordinary men from Jharkhand getting felicitated for their extraordinary deeds. The sons of the soil to be honoured during the event include Dilip Ravidas, head of a Panchayat in Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh district, whose efforts for water conservation won him praise by none other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his ‘Man ki Baat’ radio address.

Ravidas says prime minister’s recognition for his campaign for water conservation has energised his entire village where the government buildings, schools and healthcare centres have been drawn into water conservation efforts under the guidance of government officials.

Jharkhand’s Garwah resident Brajesh will be felicitated for scripting a success story out of horticulture against everyone’s advise. His techniques, to be patented soon, have received praise from agriculture scientists and fellow farmers alike. Rameshwar from Ormanjhi block in Ranchi was the leader of a group of villagers, who pooled their resources and labour to construct a check dam to collect water flowing downhill. Rameshwar will also be awarded during the event. National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) recognised farmer Hema Devi, a resident of Deoghar district in Jharkhand, who will also be felicitated for adopting modern farming techniques and later teaching fellow women how to successfully transform their lives by forming cooperatives. Ravidas, Rameshwar, Hema Devi and Brajesh will be joined by several others who will be recognised at the event for inspiring entire communities with their enterprise and never say die spirit.

Patna court grants Rahul Gandhi bail in defamation suit filed by Bihar Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi

Source: hindustantimes.com

Rahul Gandhi on Saturday appeared in the court of additional chief judicial magistrate here and pleaded ‘not guilty’ in a defamation case filed by Bihar’s deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi.

Gandhi was granted bail on two sureties of Rs 10,000 each.

Deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi had on April 18 filed a defamation case against Gandhi, alleging that he had made defamatory remarks against those having the surname of Modi. In the case, Modi referred the statement of Gandhi at a public meeting in Kolar (Karnataka) on April 13 and found it offensive and derogatory.

Pleading on Gandhi’s behalf in the court of Kumar Gunjan, his counsel, AN Singh and Sanjay Pandey argued that the allegations levelled against the Congress leader was false. Modi’s lawyers, however, countered the arguments and appealed to the court not to grant bail and start the trial of the case.

“Whoever is raising his voice in the country against the Modi government, against the BJP-RSS, he is targeted through court cases. But my fight will continue,” Gandhi told reporters before leaving the court premises.

To a query, he said the voice of people of the country was being suppressed. “My struggle to protect the constitution and the rights of farmers and labourers would continue relentlessly,” he said.

This was the first visit of Gandhi to Patna after he declared his decision to step down as the Congress president after his party’s crushing defeat in the Lok Sabha elections. A large number of party leaders and workers, including AiCC in-charge Shaktisinh Gohil, BPCC president Madan Mohan Jha, former BPCC chief Anil Sharma received Gandhi at the airport.

Gandhi arrived here on a service flight and had a brief conversation with senior party leaders at the state hanger, before heading for the court. He returned to Delhi by another service flight.