The Jammu and Kashmir government is all set to make Rs 120-crore State Cancer Institute (SCI) here fully functional now as it has granted the creation of 196 posts at the facility.

In September, 2019, Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik laid the foundation stone for 100-bed SCI at the Government Medical College hospital. The Administrative Council (AC), which met here on Thursday under the chairmanship of Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, approved the proposal of the Health and Medical Education Department to create 196 posts for the SCI at the Super Specialty Hospital, Jammu.

The new posts have been created to adequately meet the requirement of faculty, technical, paramedical, and administrative staff of the cancer treatment institute coming up in the Union territory, an official spokesman said. To strengthen tertiary level cancer care facilities, the SCI is being established at an estimated cost of Rs 120 crore under the centrally sponsored scheme 'National Programme for Prevention and Control of Cancer, Diabetes, CVD, and Stroke (NPCDCS) .

The SCI will function as an apex institute for cancer-related treatment which will mentor and coordinate activities of other institutes, he said. It will also provide outreach services, diagnosis, and referral treatments, develop treatment protocols and undertake cancer research to enhance the efficacy of treatment in Jammu and Kashmir, he added.