The faculty members of the Government Medical Colleges of Srinagar and Almora would now get 50 per cent extra salary than their counterparts posted in medical colleges located in the plain districts of the State. The government order (GO) for the decision was issued on Monday.  The proposal, a brainchild of the health minister Dhan Singh Rawat has already received the acceptance of the State cabinet. This allowance which would be 50 per cent of their salary would be given under the Medical Teachers Deficiency Compensatory Scheme (MTDCS). This would replace the existing difficult hill area allowance which is 20 per cent of the salary. For MTDCS, a corpus would be created in the college concerned and the Principal of the college would operate this corpus. This allowance would be payable to both the regular and contractual faculty members.

The health and medical education minister Dhan Singh Rawat  said that the medical colleges located in the mountainous areas of the State were facing the problem of shortage of faculty members for a long time. He said that the new initiative has been taken with an objective of removing this problem. He said that students of the medical colleges would get the benefit of the initiative.  It is pertinent to mention here that the large number of posts of Professor, Associate Professor and Assistant Professor are vacant in the government medical colleges located in the mountainous areas of the state. It is generally observed that most of the specialist doctors do not join their duties in these medical colleges after selection. The minister said that the decision would also be applicable in the government medical colleges set up in the mountainous areas of the State in the future.