The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Drug purchase a drain on State exchequer: Isaac

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Thursday, Dec 11, 2008
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Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Drug purchase a drain on State exchequer: Isaac

Special Correspondent

Rs.57,063.22- crore public debt

100 Neethi Medical Stores this year
Revamp of entrance examination soon

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The government has suffered loss to the tune of crores of rupees in the purchase of drugs by the 14 district medical stores through the Central Purchase Committee, Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac has said.

Dr. Isaac said in reply to questions in the Assembly on Wednesday that an examination by the financial inspection wing had revealed that the exchequer had lost crores of rupees owing to the negligence of the Director of Health Services, District Medical Officers, store superintendents as well as State and district store verification officers. The inspection report had been forwarded to the Health Department to explore the necessity of a vigilance probe.

The public debt of the State was Rs.57,063.22 crore as per the estimates till October last. The per capita debt as per the 2001 census was Rs.17,944.41, he said.

Road work

Minister for Public Works Mons K. Joseph said that roads spanning 367 km would be covered in the second phase of the Kerala State Transport Project. Land acquisition for 233 km had been completed and the rest would be completed soon. A nine-member expert panel had been constituted to prepare a road policy. No policy decision had been taken on the Express Way project, he said.

Neethi Medical Stores

Health Minister P.K. Sreemathy said that 100 Neethi Medical Stores would be opened this year and that the target was to open 500 medical stores in three years. It had been proposed to open one medical store in a panchayat, two in a municipality and five shops in each Corporation.

New tourism master-plans would be drawn up for Munnar, Kovalam, Kumarakom, Fort Kochi, Wayanad, Muzhuppilangad and Thekkady, Minister for Home and Tourism Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said.

Entrance revamp

A revamp of the entrance examination for admission to professional courses was on the anvil. It had been proposed to give weight for marks in the Plus Two examinations and to prepare a question bank for the entrance examination, Education Minister M.A. Baby said. The government was planning to open 35 polytechnics during next academic year. There was no ban on recruitment to aided colleges. There were 897 vacancies of college lecturers, he said.

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