DW BUREAU / Chandigarh Keeping in mind the demands of the MBBS students, the state government after a detailed discussion with them; has made several important changes in the issue related to the MBBS bond policy. With the new changes, the government has reduced the time limit of the seven-year bond agreement to five years; including postgraduate (PG) education in this time period, eventually making the time limit of the bond as two years. Along with this, the previous bond amount of Rs 40 lakhs has now been reduced to Rs 30 lakhs and by deducting the fees from this; the amount will come up to about Rs 25 lakhs. It has also been decided to give 10 percent relaxation for girls, excluding the institutional fees. Moreover, it has been decided that in case of any untoward incident with a student studying MBBS, his family will not be bound to pay the bond amount. Chief Minister, Sh. Manohar Lal had given these instructions for changes after a meeting with the students' delegation. The state government has taken another important decision of providing a government job (contractual) to the MBBS students; within one year of completion of their studies. Also, in case of a student doing a private job after completing studies and getting a salary less than that given to a medical officer by the government; he will not have to pay the bond amount until his salary would be equal to that of the medical officer or more than that. In such a situation, the government will offer a contractual job to the student. Notably, the Haryana government has launched several schemes like CHIRAYU, Ayushman Bharat and Nirogi Haryana, which have been started to provide the best health facilities to the people of the state. Along with this, medical colleges are being built in all the districts of the state and government hospitals are also being opened; for which the government will require a large number of doctors in the coming times. Chief Minister, Sh. Manohar Lal said that the state government is moving forward with the aim of providing health facilities to every person, especially the needy. He said that during the tenure of the present government, there has been an increase in the number of medical colleges, dental colleges, homeopathic colleges and nursing colleges in the state. In 2014, there were seven medical colleges in the state and MBBS seats were only 700. During the tenure of the present government, six colleges were opened and today the number of MBBS seats has increased to 1,735, he added. Sh. Manohar Lal said that the government has a plan to open medical colleges in every district. "Medical colleges are being built in various districts of the state. As soon as the construction work of these medical colleges is completed; 3,000 students will be given admission for MBBS," he said, adding that the government has increased the MBBS seats and in future also these seats will be increased; so that the shortage of doctors can be met. He said that the state government aims to meet the target of posting one doctor per 1,000 population; as per the criteria set by the World Health Organisation. (editor@dailyworld.in)