MANISH GUPTA
Ranchi, Oct 17: Blaming the central government for failing to uphold the spirit of federalism, Jharkhand Health Minister Banna Gupta on Monday said that the major issue facing the state health sector is the lack of human resources.
“The biggest problem facing the state health system is the lack of human resources. We need more than 4,000 health professionals but we have only 2,200 to 2,300,” Gupta told reporters of lagatar24.com, lagatar.com and Shubham Sandesh at the Lagatar office.
Gupta said that the state has taken and continues to take various steps to improve the health infrastructure including recruitment of health professionals, setup of RTPCR testing centres (from none in 2000 to 15 now) and two genome sequencing machines.
“We have started the process of recruitment for 1,900 posts in the health sector. With the same objective to increase the ratio of health professionals in the state, we recently raised the retirement age of the doctors from 65 years to 67 years,” the minister said.
The health minister said that adding manpower in the health sector is not a simple job as the state cannot keep anybody on contract and that there are specialised workers for different jobs that have to be recruited and entrusted with the responsibilities.
“We are trying to build the capacity of our health facilities. We have taken measures to connect our health institutions with advanced technology. If you compare the situation under the previous government and now, you will see the difference we have made.”
On domicile issue based on 1932 land records, Gupta stated, “There is nothing to worry for anybody from 1932 to 2022. My father and grandfather all worked and died here. It is our land and nobody can call us outsiders. Have faith in me, everybody is safe.”
