Bihar cabinet hikes stipend of interns of medical colleges

The Bihar cabinet today gave its nod to increase the monthly stipend by Rs 3,000 of those doing internship in government medical colleges in the state.
Giving nod to the Health department's proposal, the cabinet increased the stipend of those who are doing internship in all streams in all the government medical colleges, Cabinet Secretariat Department's Principal Secretary Brijesh Mehrotra said.
Interns of allopathy, ayurved, homoeopathy, Unani and dental will now get Rs 15,000 monthly stipend against the current Rs 12,000 while those doing internship in physiotherapy and occupational therapy will get Rs 11,000 instead of Rs 8,000, Mehrotra said.

The hiked stipend will be implemented with effect from April 1, 2017, he said adding that the hike would put an annual additional financial burden of Rs 4.53 crore on state's exchequer. The revision of stipend is made every three years, he added.
There are, at present, 950 MBBS interns in Bihar, official sources said.
Altogether 19 decisions were taken at the cabinet meeting chaired by the Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today.

In another decision, the cabinet gave its nod to "Bihar Food Security Grievances Redressal Rules 2017" to put in place a mechanism for quick redressal of grievances of aggrieved beneficiaries under the Food Security Act.

Under the Rules, nodal officers have been notified to hear and redress the grievances of the beneficiaries at block, district and state levels, Mehrotra said.
Aggrieved beneficiaries can also lodge their complaints on toll free helpline number or PDS portal "sfcbihargovernment.In", he said.
It also approved the general administration department's proposal to sack one Jaishree Thakur, a Bihar Administrative Service officer, the then land acquisition officer posted at Banka under Bhagalpur division from the service, he said.
Charges were levelled against Thakur, who was under suspension, that she committed some irregularities in the fixation of rate for land acquisition, he said.

The cabinet also sanctioned the creation of one post to the rank of "Additional District and Sessions Judge" at Bikramganj civil court, Mehrotra said.
It also upgraded Dhaka Nagar Panchayat to Municipal Council (Nagar Parishad) in East Champaran, the principal secretary said..