Patna, Aug. 18: Interns of medical colleges in Bihar will get Rs 15,000 as monthly stipend, up from Rs 12,000 earlier, the cabinet decided at its meeting today, and a Bihar administrative officer whose name figured in the Bhagalpur fund-transfer scam was sacked.

The Rs 3,000 hike in the monthly stipend will also be applicable for interns of Unani, Ayurveda (who earlier used to get Rs 12,000 like MBBS students), physical and occupational therapies (Rs 8,000 earlier, Rs 11,000 now).

"The enhanced stipend would be given with effect from April 1 this year," principal secretary (cabinet secretariat) Brijesh Mehrotra said.

It will put an additional load of Rs 4.53 crore per annum on the state exchequer.

The cabinet also decided to revise the stipend amount every three years.

"Enhancing the monthly stipend was a long pending demand and I thank the government for this move," said Upasana, an intern at Patna Medical College and Hospital.

"The provision of revision of the stipend amount every three years is the icing on the cake."

The cabinet at it meeting today also decided to dismiss a Bihar administrative service officer and a commercial tax officer.

The administrative service officer, Jayashree Thakur, was found to have violated rules while work-ing as a land acquisition officer.

In 2013, sleuths of economic offences unit (EOU) had conducted a raid against her after she deposited Rs 5 crore in the cooperative bank run by Srijan Mahila Vikas Sahyog Samiti, the NGO at the centre of the Bhagalpur fund-transfer scam into which chief minister Nitish Kumar recommended a CBI probe yesterday.

Commercial tax officer Mohammad Shakil Ahmed was sacked for going abroad without permission and not cooperating with the departmental proceedings initiated against him consequently.

The cabinet also restored the services of Bihar administrative service office Surendra Rai, who had been dismissed in 2012, in the light of a high court decision in Rai's favour.

The cabinet took 19 decisions today.

The other decisions included upgrading the Dhaka Nagar Panchayat in East Champaran district to a Nagar Parishad, extending post-death-cum-retirement benefits to employees of the new pension scheme similar to the those under the old pension scheme, and setting up an inter-nal mechanism and deputing nodal officers for grievance redress under the national food security law.