Chennai: The Tamil Nadu Government on Wednesday achieved a unique distinction of securing the Centre's approval for starting six medical colleges in the districts that do not have such state-run institutions at present. This could yield an additional 900 seats to TN's kitty, if its request for sanction of 150 seats per institution sails through the Medical Council of India (MCI). The state even now has the highest number of medical colleges in the country, both government-run and private
Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami responded by writing to the Prime Minister to warmly thank him for acceding to his request for the medical colleges and better still, granting Central contribution of Rs.1,170 crore as its 60 per cent contribution towards the entire outlay for the ambitious project that would deliver 600-900 new medical graduates annually.
The state contributes 40 per cent of the total cost, which is Rs.780 crore, according to a media statement from the Chief Minister referring to his 'thank-you' letter to the PM. He also listed out the six districts where the new medical colleges would be set up - Virudhunagar, Ramanathapuram, Dindigul, Namakkal, Tiruppur and Nilgiris.
Buoyed by this success, the state is readying another appeal to the Centre to grant three more medical colleges in the districts not served so far -Tiruvallur, Krishnagiri and Nagapattinam.
"I had asked the Centre to clear these medical colleges and also sought the required funds from the Prime Minister. We got all the plans and proposals in the shortest possible time. Land has been already allocated for all the six colleges, as required by the Centre", CM said.
"Work will begin almost immediately to launch the construction work for the six medical colleges now sanctioned. We got this sanction (from the Centre) in record time and we put in huge effort to speed up the process. We got all the concerned department heads to pass clearances and as many as five ministers sign the papers to finally get Government Order (G.O) allocating land issued in just one day, which is a record", state health minister C Vijaya Baskar told DC
He said there was "a small hurdle" in respect of Nilgiris, which was sorted out by the state health secretary meeting the concerned officials at Delhi. All the six new colleges would come up and become functional "in the shortest possible time, hopefully by the next academic year".
He said adding medical colleges and increasing the number of graduates would significantly improve the doctor-patient ratio and consequently the healthcare in the state, which has already been world-class.
