In a written statement to the Lok Sabha, Minister for Health and Family Welfare Ghulam Nabi Azad said on Monday that the central government has taken various measures to strengthen human resource in the health sector.
In all, nine such measures have been activated. They are:
(i) Land requirement for setting up of medical colleges has been relaxed from 25 acres to 20 acres throughout the country.
(ii) Land requirement relaxed from 20 acres to 10 acres based on permissible FAR/FSI in the Metropolitan and "A" Grade cities viz. Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Greater Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Surat, Pune, Bangalore and Kanpur.
(iii) Permission given to set up medical colleges in two pieces of land in the states of Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal for a period of 5 years with certain provisions. Further, this has been extended to other States for utilisation of District hospitals by the respective State Governments.
(iv) In hilly areas, notified tribal areas, North Eastern States, Union Territories of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Daman and Diu, Dadra and Nagra Haveli and Lakshadweep, the land can be in two pieces at a distance of not more than 10 km.
(v) Bed occupancy has been relaxed in North Eastern States and Hill States.
(vi) Requirement of infrastructure like institution block, library, auditorium, examination hall, lecture theatres, etc. has been rationalized for optimal use.
(vii) Companies registered under the Companies Act have also been allowed to establish medical colleges.
(viii) The ratio of teachers to students has been revised depending on disciplines and availability of faculty to increase the number of specialists in the country.
(ix) In order to meet the shortage of ANM and GNM, the Government is establishing 132 ANM and 137 GNM schools in the country.
