By IANS
New Delhi : Cutting across party lines, members of parliament Friday lauded the Armed Forces Medical Services (AFMS) for providing healthcare both at home and abroad and called for making career prospects of its staff more attractive.
Speaking at a meeting of the parliamentary consultative committee attached to the defence ministry here, the MPs recalled the stellar role played by AFMS during the earthquakes in Latur, Bhuj and Jammu & Kashmir, the tsunami in the coastal areas and in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands and more recently in southern Kerala during the chikungunya outbreak.
“The members appreciated the quality of education being provided by the Armed Forces Medical College at Pune to produce some of the best health care specialists over the years,” a defence ministry release said.
Addressing the meeting, Defence Minister A.K. Antony said AFMS was a classic model of inter-service integration, with all the three services jointly committed to the task of providing comprehensive healthcare services to its clientele.
“The training is carried out as per the joint requirement of the three services and inter-service transfers and postings are carried to meet the specific needs of specialists and medical officers in various establishments of the three services,” the minister said.
According to Antony, AFMS was one service that was constantly under observation from all quarters since they deal with precious human lives.
“They have not only to perform at all times but also the qualities of services rendered by them have to be above average. It is a matter of pride that the AFMS has responded up to the expectations wherever called upon to do so, be it during low intensify conflicts or counter insurgency operations or open combat,” the minister said.
“In spite of their constraints, which are now being addressed, AFMS continues to perform creditably each and every time,” he added.
Taking part in the discussion, the members suggested that all vacant posts at various hospitals of AFMS should be filled expeditiously.
“They were of the view that the career prospects of the staff of AFMS should be made more attractive. Some members felt that AFMS should also address the stress factor of soldiers,” the release said.
At the outset, the defence minister congratulated India’s defence scientists for achieving a major milestone Thursday by successfully carrying out an endo-atmospheric interceptor missile test at Wheeler Island in Bay of Bengal off the coast of Orissa.
He also described Dec 6 as a Red Letter Day with parliament passing the landmark Armed Forces Tribunal Bill.
“It had taken long years’ of painstaking efforts to get legislative approval for this bill, which will go a long way in providing speedy justice to thousands of serving and retired service personnel,” Antony said.
Naveen Jindal, Shankhlal Majhi, Suresh Kalmadi, M.A. Kharabela Swain and P.R. Rajan were among the MPs from the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha who attended the meeting.
Defence Secretary Vijay Singh, Secretary (Defence Research and Development) M. Natrajan, Secretary (Defence Finance) N.K. Narang and various senior civil and military officials also participated.