The Assam government on August 6 said it has vacancies of over 3,000 doctors' posts in public health institutions and there was no need for the fresh MBBS pass outs to leave the state.

Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has called for formulation of policies to retain the MBBS pass outs in the state, an official release said. "On being informed by the Health Department that around 3,000 vacancies of doctors are there in the public health institutions of the state, Sonowal said that policy must be formulated to retain majority of 726 MBBS doctors who pass out annually from the medical colleges for serving the government hospitals," the release said.

During a review meeting of the 'Aspirational Districts' programme, Sonowal directed using the platform of 'Gaon Sabhas' to effectively spread messages at the village level. On financial inclusion, the Finance Department informed Sonowal that a total of 2,20,233 Jan Dhan Yojna bank accounts have been opened in the state exceeding the target of 1,94,296 accounts.

"On Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojna, it was informed that a total of 1,19,411 free LPG connections have been provided in the state till now against a target of 1,33,138," the statement said. The chief minister directed the Power Department to give domestic power connections to government schools instead of commercial connections so that they can continue paying electricity bills and power supply does not get disrupted.

"The Aspirational Districts programme launched by the PM is an opportunity for us to rapidly develop the districts lagging behind in key development indicators. The seven districts of Assam shortlisted under this programme must be brought at par with the most developed districts of the nation," Sonowal added. The 'Aspirational Districts' programme has been conceived by NITI Aayog and launched by the Centre in 117 districts of the country, aiming to develop 49 key performance indicators.