Ranchi, May 15: Jharkhand state unit of Indian Medical Association (IMA) lags behind other states in membership and social benefit schemes, said IMA national vice-president Ajay K. Singh.

Jharkhand only has 3,085 members compared to Maharashtra’s more than 20,000 members. Andhra Pradesh, another leading state, has 16,816 members.

As the national vice-president, in charge of the membership drive, he has been visiting different state units to study the methods adopted to boost the number of members.

Singh, who is impressed with the functioning of the Andhra Pradesh unit, said they have a well organised system of membership benefit programmes for social security.

In AP, all members of the IMA are members of the Social Security scheme. Thus, even if a member dies or becomes a victim of an accident the family gets huge financial assistance, Singh said. To avail of the scheme, each member pays an average premium of Rs 2500, after an initial membership fee of Rs 10,000.

Singh also said the IMA bosses are working on creating a guest house network in all the metropolitan and main cities of the country. Singh also stressed on the need of medical professionals being connected with each other in the countrywide network of IMA so that they can interact with each other, for both academic and professional purposes.