Puducherry, Sep 1 (IANS): The Puducherry government will regularise the services of doctors who have been working on contract basis in government service for the past 10 years or more.

They will be regularised against the vacancies in the Department of Health and Family Welfare, Chief Minister N. Rangasamy announced while winding up the budget discussions in the Puducherry Assembly on Wednesday.

He said that additionally, the services of doctors, nurses, lab technicians and auxiliary nurses-cum-midwives, who have completed 10 years of contract work in the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), will be regularised against vacancies in the department, giving them preference in postings.

The Chief Minister also said that the salaries of the house surgeons working in the government medical colleges would be raised from Rs 5,000 to Rs 20,000.

He said the salaries of employees working on voucher payment basis in the PWD and other departments would be raised to Rs 10,000 a month and the payment will be affected through the directorate of accounts and treasuries.

Rangasamy also said that the pension of freedom fighters would be raised from Rs 9,000 to Rs 10,000, the assistance for pregnant women will be raised from Rs 18,000 to Rs 25,000, and the funeral expenses of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe people would be increased from Rs 15,000 to Rs 25,000. Also, the pension of journalists will be raised by Rs 500 per month to Rs 8,000.

The Chief Minister said that the government is considering providing Rs 10 lakh each to the families of three journalists who had succumbed to Covid-19 and a decision in this regard will be taken soon.

The Chief Minister also said that free higher education will be provided to all the students from Puducherry admitted through the Centralised Admission Committee of the Government (CENTAC) in engineering, medicine and other professional courses. Fee for all these students will be borne by the government, Rangasamy said.