PM to open 11 med colleges in Jan

PM to open 11 med colleges in Jan

To Share Stage With CM During His First TN Visit Amid DMK Rule

Julie.Mariappan@timesgroup.com

Chennai:  19.12.2021

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief minister M K Stalin will share the stage in Virudhunagar on January 12 for the opening of 11 new medical colleges in the state. Union health and family welfare minister Mansukh Mandaviya will also take part in the event, sources said.

This is the PM’s first visit to Tamil Nadu after the Stalin-led DMK government assumed office. “The state government is ready to open the colleges as approval has been obtained for admission of 1,450 seats in these colleges. The PM (is keen on) attending the event,” said a source. The erstwhile AIADMK government managed to get the colleges allotted for Tamil Nadu under the Modi government’s scheme to establish medical colleges attached to existing district and referral hospitals. The Union and state governments shared the cost of ₹325 crore in a 60:40 ratio to set up each medical college.

Ariyalur, Dindigul, Nagapattinam, Krishnagiri, Virudhunagar, Kallakurichi and Ooty colleges have been sanctioned 150 seats each, while Namakkal, Tiruvallur, Tiruppur and Ramanathapuram colleges have been allotted 100 seats each. The AIADMK had proposed colleges in Cuddalore and Kancheepuram too but owing to the presence of Annamalai University in Chidambaram and a private medical college in Kancheepuram, the state government could not get central approval.

Former health minister C Vijayabaskar said the health department took up the implementation of the scheme on a war-footing and completed land acquisition and got approvals from government agencies quickly. “It was historic that TN got sanction for 11 medical colleges at one stroke. Even the newly created Kallakurichi district was included,” Vijayabaskar said, recalling how appointment of doctors was a big challenge earlier in Nagapattinam, Ooty and aspirational districts like Ramanathapuram and Virudhunagar.

NEXT STOP VIRUDHUNAGAR:

PM Narendra Modi greets M K Stalin while visiting his father and former CM M Karunanidhi in Chennai in 2017