Meghalaya among 27 states to get new nursing colleges

Meghalaya will be one of the 27 states selected for the establishment of new nursing colleges.

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In a significant move towards strengthening nursing workforce in the country, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved the establishment of 157 new nursing colleges in co-location with the existing medical colleges established since 2014.

One of the 157 new nursing colleges will be established in Meghalaya.

The step will add approximately 15,700 nursing graduates every year.

This will further ensure quality, affordable, and equitable nursing education in India, particularly in underserved districts and States/Union Territories. The total financial implication will be Rs 1,570 crore.

The initiative aims to address the geographical and rural-urban imbalances in the healthcare sector, which have led to the skewed availability of nursing professionals and impacted healthcare services in underserved areas. The establishment of these nursing colleges will provide a significant boost to the availability of qualified human resources in healthcare.

This is also being done as a part of the national mandate for Universal Health Care (UHC) and will help in attainment of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Reforms in regulatory structure for Nursing education to meet with the emerging requirements in the sector are also under consideration.

National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) also collaborates with leading International & National agencies for skill development and placement of qualified nurses for overseas positions.

Co-location of these nursing colleges with existing medical colleges will allow optimal utilization of the existing infrastructure, skill labs, clinical facilities, and faculty.

This initiative is expected to provide better clinical exposure to nursing students and will also result in better care and service provision for patients in medical colleges. Use of green technologies will also be explored in these Nursing colleges and will be adopted as per relevancy to ensure energy efficiency and reduction in carbon footprint.

The Government plans to complete the project within next two years and has laid out detailed timelines for every stage of planning as well as execution of the project.

The Empowered Committee headed by the Union Health Secretary in the Centre and Principal Secretary, Health or Medical Education in the States will monitor the progress of the work.

The State Government/UTs will intimate to MoHFW on regular basis, the physical progress of the works being done for the establishment of new nursing colleges under the scheme.

There has been a tremendous focus of this government to ensure quality healthcare workforce with a substantial increase in their numbers. The Government has increased number of medical colleges and subsequently increased MBBS seats in last few years. There is a substantial increase of around 71 per cent in Medical Colleges from 387 before 2014 to 660 as of now.

Further, the number of MBBS seats has almost doubled and Post Graduate seats have more than doubled since 2013-14.

The services of Indian Nurses are considerably recognized in foreign countries, so it is important to bring Indian nursing education at par with global standards in order to facilitate their mobility and better employment opportunities. They are recognized as highly skilled professionals and drive the healthcare delivery system, but their numerical strength is below global norms and needs to be adequately enhanced.

Militancy at its lowest, says State DGP

Director General of Police (DGP) Dr LR Bishnoi has stated that the law and order situation in the state is more or less peaceful.

“It is under control and we are getting full cooperation from the people,” Dr Bishnoi told reporters after a meeting at the police headquarters.

He said in the districts, most of the crimes are not directly linked to the law and order.

“Fortunately, militancy is also at its lowest level and whatever remnant groups are there, they are in the peace process they are talking to the central interlocutors also,” Dr Bishnoi said while adding “Not much problem as of today but future challenges will remain and for that we are trying to strengthen our law and order branch so that they can deal with the situation immediately.”

The Meghalaya High Court was not happy with the performance of the state police especially in regards to the illegal transportation of coal, the DGP said, “We are going as per the high court orders wherever the mistakes are pointed out we are trying to plug the loopholes but again you know the area is so much and the police strength is not proportionately adequate to dominate each and every inch of the land of the state so sometimes you know through the jungle route some may indulge in the transportation of illegal coal etc for that also we are trying to dominate it by the patrolling.”

“So by and large it is under control now and whatever the direction from the court or government given to the police department we will definitely try to follow those,” he added.

No policy to regularise contractual employees: Mondal

Staff Reporter

Shillong, April 6: Minister in charge of Power Abu Taher Mondal stated that there is no policy to regularize the services of the contractual employees in Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited (MeECL).

“(There is) no policy as such to regularize. Whenever required as such, MeECL goes for advertisement and appointments are given on that basis,” Mondal told the reporters.

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He added that “the one who works under different categories, it is not that they will be taken like that they will have to go for proper employment policy”.

It may be mentioned here that the MeECL Progressive Workers’ Union (MePWU) has been calling for a series of agitations demanding the MeECL management to frame a policy for the regularization of long-standing casual workers.