Doctors, paramedic staff to be recruited in K'taka

Mysore, Sep 1 (UNI) The Karnataka Government will recruit doctors and paramedical staff for various health centres and hospitals in the State and necessary Government Orders will be issued within four days, Health Minister R Ashok announced today.

Addressing mediapersons here, he said about 500 doctors and 2,750 paramecial staff would be recruited for primary health centres, community health centres and Government hospitals in backward taluks as per the recommendations of the Nanjundappa Commission on regional imbalance. The doctors appointed in the most backward areas of 39 taluks would be paid Rs 3,000 per month as special allowance.

Stating that Rs 45 crore had been sanctioned for the upgradation of 48 PHCs, Mr Ashok said all the GHs would be supplied with unlimited stocks of life saving drugs whose number had increased to 860 from 448. Allocation of funds for the current year had been increased to Rs 78 crore from Rs 46 crore. The Government would seek from the hospitals the one-time demand of medicines for the whole of the year and the medicines would be distributed once in four months.

Earlier, the Minister, inaugurating a three-day national convention of sex workers here, said five lakh people had tested positive for AIDS in Karnataka and the Government had been seriously working to prevent the spread of the deadly disease. The Government was spending Rs 40 crore annually on AIDS awareness programmes and upgrading laboratories in hospitals.

Calling upon the people to show compassion towards AIDS patients, he urged that they be allowed to lead a normal life.

Over 1,000 members from various NGOs, sex workers from Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Mumbai and other places were attending the convention.

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