Don't migrate, serve country's needy: Badal to doctors

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today said it was a "colossal wastage" of resources on preparing doctors if they migrate to other countries and asked them to work in the state where their services were far more required.
Badal expressed concern over the growing trend of "brain drain" among doctors and specialists while addressing medical students on the ninth convocation of the Government Medical College here today.
Urging students to serve in rural and difficult areas like border, Badal said their services were far more needed here and "they would derive lot of satisfaction while serving the needy and underprivileged sections of society".

The veteran Akali leader said that it was the need of the hour to reverse the trend of "brain drain".
Badal said that setting up of Homi Bhabha Cancer Treatment and Research Center at Mullanpur (New Chandigarh) under the auspices of Tata Memorial Cancer Institute, Mumbai will help the state in emerging as a major hub of Super Speciality medical care.
He said the state government has already made elaborate arrangements to provide state of the art treatment to the patients afflicted with the cancer in the Government Medical Colleges at Amritsar, Patiala and Faridkot, besides the upcoming ultra modern Cancer treatment centers in Bathinda and Sangrur.

The chief minister said the state government has declared a war on drugs and huge money was being spent on establishment of drug de-addiction centers and rehabilitation centres for drug addicts across the state.

"The state government has already sanctioned plenty of funds for the recruitment of doctors, psychiatrists and para medics to run these institutions efficiently besides providing free medicines to the patients," he said.
The state government is fully seized with the problem of growing unemployment and the only solution to tackle this menace, especially among the college/school drop outs, was to impart skill training in different fields to enable them to earn their livelihood, Badal said.

He said that the state government has set a target of training about one lakh youth annually under various skill development programmes to cater the needs of local industry.
Badal also mentioned that the state government has prepared a detailed programme to impart skill training in para medics and 32 other related courses across the state.