BANGALORE: Doctors working in rural areas will be given a hardship allowance by the State Government, Principal Health Secretary D. Thangaraj said here on Monday.

Although the proposal for the allowance is still in the preliminary stage, Mr. Thangaraj said the Government hopes to implement it soon. He said the funds for the project will be obtained through a proposed World Bank funds for upgrading facilities at Primary Health Centres (PHCs). The World Bank project for five years is expected to cost Rs. 680 crores.

Speaking at the inauguration of a seminar on Non-communicable diseases organised by the World Health Organisation and the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR), Mr. Thangaraj said most of the 1,600 PHCs in State are not equipped to deal with non-communicable diseases. He added that the poor are not aware of the problems of non-communicable diseases and did not seek treatment for them soon enough.

D.K. Shukla, Deputy Director of ICMR, New Delhi, said the seminar on non-communicable diseases, being held at St. Johns Medical College and Hospital, is one in a series of ongoing seminars across the State. He said ICMR is planning to draw up a nation-wide plan on tackling non-communicable diseases using inputs that they receive from different States.

Prem Pai, Dean of St. John's Medical College and Hospital, said non-communicable diseases is a growing problem in India. The hospital, he said, has undertaken a study on prospective urban-rural evaluation of non-communicable diseases. He said researchers at the hospital will select a target population of healthy persons and evaluate their health periodically to see if they are at high risk of developing non-communicable diseases.

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