Mamata Banerjee said her government finds it difficult to send medical students to rural areas (File)

Proposing an increase in the number of seats in medical colleges of West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday put the blame of shortage of doctors in the state on the present all-India MBBS selection procedure.

Responding to a question in the Assembly, Ms Banerjee who also holds the health portfolio, said her government is finding it difficult to send medical students to rural areas as many of them are moving out of the state after getting trained here.

"We want to recruit more doctors but they are not available. Earlier, under the state quota, we used to get a decent number of doctors. But due to the all-India MBBS selection examination, aspirant doctors are leaving West Bengal after receiving education and serving a bond of three years," she said adding that this system has led to the scarcity of doctors in the state.

Ms Banerjee had earlier stated that medical students from outside the state often leave after graduating and the state government is contemplating to increase the domicile quota.

"An immediate step has to be taken to rectify it. We must increase the number of seats for the doctors," she said.

The chief minister also referred to a recent drive to recruit general duty medical officers in 820 posts, to which only 105 responded and 41 expressed willingness to join but declined to be posted in villages.

This is a recent development which started last year because of various rules of the Centre. They (doctors) are going out of West Bengal as people from the state are not getting the chances which they should have here, she said.

The number of MBBS seats in West Bengal when the Trinamool Congress government came to power in the state in 2011 was 1,355 which has now risen to 3,650, Minister of State for Health Chandrima Bhattacharya informed the House.