Bihar: Govt colleges to not charge fees from foreign medical graduates for internships

PATNA: In a relief to foreign medical graduates, the Bihar government on Tuesday announced that government medical colleges and hospitals will not charge any fee from them for granting permission for internships. Besides, the state government also decided to provide stipends and other facilities at par with those extended to Indian medical graduates, officials said.

The decisions were taken at a cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar here on Tuesday. “Now, government medical colleges or hospitals will not charge any fee from the medical graduates from abroad for permitting them to do internships in the state,” said S Siddharth, Additional Chief Secretary (Cabinet Secretariat).

“The maximum FMG quota in internship will be 7.5 per cent of the institute’s total permitted seats. Majority of the FMGs were those who returned to India after the COVID-19 outbreak and the Ukraine war with incomplete internships,” he told reporters here.

Besides, the state cabinet also approved a policy to regulate chit fund companies in the state. “With the cabinet approving a policy in this regard, the government can now confiscate properties of those chit fund companies who operate illegally,” Siddharth said.

The Bihar cabinet also announced incentives for setting up compressed biogas units. The state government will provide an incentive of 15 per cent of the total capital investment or Rs 5 crore in case of investors belonging to the general category, he added.