Health and Family Welfare Minister B. Sriramulu told the Legislative Assembly on Thursday that 2,000 doctors would be appointed in April to fill vacancies in primary health centres and government hospitals.

Replying to A.T. Ramaswamy of the JD(S) during the Question Hour, Mr. Sriramulu said a process was on for recruitment of 800 nurses to fill vacancies across the State.

He said differences in pay scales of doctors in the Medical Education and Health and Family departments was one of the reasons for doctors joining medical education. Doctors in the Medical Education Department receive higher pay therefore doctors join that department and not the Health and Family Welfare Department, he said.

Minister for Environment and Forest B.S. Anand Singh told the House that a meeting of legislators would be called soon to discuss the menace of wild elephants in different districts. He told Appachu Ranjan (BJP) that monthly allowance of ₹2,000 was being paid for those people who have become permanently physically challenged owing to elephant attack, besides one-time compensation on humanitarian grounds.

M.P. Kumaraswamy of the BJP demanded permanent jobs for those people who have become physically challenged owing to wild elephant attack. The member said fake bills were produced after digging poor quality elephant-proof trenches in the forest region. The trenches that have been dug are ineffective, he said, and demanded a probe into it.

Bill tabled

The Karnataka State Law University (Amendment) Bill, 2020 was tabled in the Legislative Assembly on Thursday for renaming “the Director” as “the Vice-Chancellor” in the National Law School of India (Amendment) Act, 2004.

The State Accounts Department would be renamed as “the Karnataka State Audit and Accounts Department” and the designation of “the controller” would changed as “the principal director” of the State Audit and Accounts Department, the Bill said. The Bill would amend the Karnataka State Law University Act, 11 of 2009.