August 2019

www.theasianindependent.co.uk ASIA August 2019 9
Doctors, medical students
protest against Medical Bill
New Delhi : Doctors and students
from various hospitals and
colleges protested here on
Monday alleging that the
National Medical Commission
(NMC) Bill will only give a
boost to quacks.
The demonstration came in
response to a call from the
Indian Medical Association
(IMA).
The IMA held a "Delhi
Andolan", which included a
march by the medical fraternity
from Nirman Bhavan - which
houses the Health Ministry - to
Jantar Mantar in the heart of the
capital. Doctors and experts
have alleged that Section 32 of
the proposed NMC Bill will
intensify quackery by rural medical
practitioners, private medical
practitioners and others.
IMA President Santanu Sen
said the "government will have
blood on its hands" if Section 32
Chandigarh : Punjab Chief
Minister Amarinder Singh on
Monday said his government
was formulating a policy to
award a one-rank promotion for
any defence or police personnel
from the state winning a gallantry
award in war or peacetime.
If any such officers or personnel
wish to join Punjab Police, their
service and bravery would be
given due recognition, said the
Chief Minister, while 'pipping
the stars' of Assistant Sub-
Inspector (ASI) on the uniform
of Kargil war hero Satpal Singh.
Satpal Singh, who joined
of the NMC Bill 2019 was not
removed. He said the addition of
Section 32 legalized quackery by
empowering community health
providers to practice medicine
and this would endanger the
lives of people. Rajan Sharma,
another IMA leader, said if
Section 32 was not removed, 3.5
lakh community health providers
would be legalized to prescribe
drugs. The IMA is also opposing
other provisions in the Bill
including the decision to couple
NEXT and NEET and regulation
of fee by the NMC for 50 per
cent seats in private medical colleges
and deemed universities.
"The NMC Bill compromises
patient care and patient safety. It
also violates the constitutional
principles of right to democracy,
federalism and equal opportunity,"
the IMA said in a statement.
The NMC Bill has been listed
for discussion in Parliament on
Monday. The Bill proposes a
common final year MBBS
examination, to be known as
National Exit Test (NEXT), for
admission to post-graduate medical
courses and for obtaining
license to practice medicine. It
would also act as a screening test
for foreign medical graduates,
official sources said. Besides
this, the National Eligibility cum
Entrance Test (NEET), common
counselling and NEXT would be
applicable to institutes of national
importance like AIIMS in
order to achieve a common standard
in medical education in the
country.
Punjab formulating policy for gallantry awardees
Punjab Police after his
discharge from the
Indian Army, was
posted in Drass sector
during Operation Vijay
in 1999. Interestingly,
Satpal Singh finds
mention in
Amarinder's book 'A
Ridge Too Far -- War
in the Kargil Heights'.
Amarinder, who served as an
Army captain during the 1965
India-Pakistan war, promoted
the Vir Chakdra awardee on
Friday from his earlier rank of
Senior Constable in which
capacity he was
managing traffic in
Sangrur district till
July 26.
Director
General of Police
Dinkar Gupta was
also present at the
pipping ceremony.
Amarinder said
he had merely set
right the wrong perpetrated on
Satpal Singh by the previous
SAD-BJP government which
had ignored the valour of the soldier
and failed to give him the
recognition and respect he
deserved. The Chief Minister
said he had not been aware earlier
of the situation and what he
had done now was merely a case
of "too little too late" for the
brave soldier. This should have
been done at the time of Satpal
Singh's recruitment in 2010, he
said.
The policy to be drafted by
his government will leave no
scope for such injustice,
Amarinder said, making it clear
that the policy would cover
police gallantry award winners,
including JCOs, in addition to
the jawans of the defence forces.
'Odisha Rasagola' gets GI
tag in battle with Bengal
Bhubaneswar : Rasagola, the sweet delicacy of Odisha, got the
Geographical Indication (GI) tag on Monday, signalling the end of
the bitter battle with West Bengal over the origin of the famous
Indian sweet. Chennai based GI Registry has granted the GI tag to
'Odisha Rasagola'. The mouth-watering sweet has been registered
under the Geographical Indication of Goods (Registration and
Protection) Act, 1999. The tag will remain valid till February 22,
2028. The GI tag is a name or sign used on products that have a specific
geographical origin and possess qualities or a reputation of that
origin.
Earlier, the Odisha Small Industries Corporation Limited had submitted
the required documents for getting the GI status for 'Odisha
Rasagola'. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik expressed his happiness
after Odisha received the GI tag for the sweet delicacy.
"Happy to share that #Odisha Rasagola has received GI Tag in
Geographical Indication Registry. This mouth-watering culinary
delight made of cottage cheese, loved across the world, is offered to
Lord Jagannath as part of bhog since centuries," Patnaik tweeted.
Odisha had moved the GI Registry for its version of the delicacy
after West Bengal was awarded the GI tag for it's variant 'Banglara
Rasagulla' in November 2017.
Odisha had been claiming that the famous delicacy originated in
the state years ago as it was first served at the Lord Jagannath
Temple, the 12th-century shrine in Puri. The word Rasagola was
written in the 'Dandi Ramayana' by Odia poet Balaram Das in the
15th century. However, the Bengal Rasagola was introduced by
Kolkata-based confectioner Nobin Chandra Das in 1868, said
researcher on Jagannath Cult Asit Mohanty, who submitted a report
to the state government. West Bengal and Odisha have been engaged
in a bitter legal battle over the origin of the Rasagola.
A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed in the Orissa High
Court in February 2018, seeking the GI tag for 'Odisha Rasagola' and
scrapping the tag received by West Bengal.
TIGER TURNAROUND : How over 75,000
frames captured by camera traps HELPED
New Delhi : It took 3.5 crore pictures
from camera traps, out of which
76,523 captured tigers, for the scientists
to complete the tiger head count. The
individual animal was identified using
Artificial Intelligence (AI) to conclude
the presence of around 3,000 tigers in
the county in 2018.
Above all, the general trait of
Indians to co-exist with animals has
been a crucial factor in tiger conservation,
feels Y.V. Jhala, who heads the
Tiger Cell of Wildlife Institute of India.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on
Monday released the fourth cycle of All
India Tiger Estimation, which showed
India achieved the target of doubling
the wild cat's population four years
ahead of the deadline of 2022 -- from
1,411 in 2006 to 2,967 in 2018.
How could the tiger population
flourish at a phenomenal rate when
other tiger countries are struggling with
it? Jhala has an answer. It is people's
attitude, he said. "In India, people are
ready to co-exist with animals around.
Despite high human population density,
they follow the motto of 'live and let
live'. In other countries, animals are
generally exploited," he said. The tiger
census was carried out on 3,81,400 sq
km in 20 tiger-occupied states, in which
camera traps were used at 26,838 locations
in a span of 1.5 years. Of the total
3.5 crore photographs obtained through
Capture-Mark-Recapture methodology,
76,651 were found to be of tigers, Jhala
said. Subsequently, individual identification
of tigers was carried out using
pattern recognition programs
ExtractCompare. As many as 2,461
individual tigers -- or 83 per cent of
2,967 -- have photo-captured.
Implementation of conservation initiatives
like voluntary incentivized village
relocations, connecting tiger source
populations through habitat corridors
by National Tiger Conservation
Authority (NTCA) in collaboration
with the State Forest Departments and
NGO's have helped to provide a conducive
atmosphere for tiger breeding.
Jhala belives the number of tigers can
easily go up by another 1,000 by next
census. However, the surplus tiger population
is set to throw up new challenges
as it can aggravate the problem
of human-animal conflict. Interestingly,
30 per cent of the total tigers counted in
the census are photo-captured from
areas that do not fall in protected areas.
"It is about carrying capacity of the
reserves. The challenge now is to look
beyond protected areas and be ready
with measures to address conflicts,"
said Rajesh Gopal, former head of
NTCA. He said community stewardship
can be one of the possible solutions
to address the issue. Bilal Habib, a
scientist with WII, said tiger conservation
outside protected areas would not
be possible if people were not happy
with their presence.
"So tiger conservation should be
economically beneficial for people living
the protected areas. It should be
beneficial to the poor people who
shared the habitat and bear the brunt of
human-animal conflict," he said.