New Delhi: Following a high-level cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Union Ministers Prakash Javadekar and Piyush Goyal said at a press conference that the government has approved the establishment of 75 new medical colleges in the country. Javadekar said that the addition would lead to the creation 15,700 more MBBS seats in India.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) said that the medical colleges would be established by 2021-22 and will be attached with existing district and referral hospitals under Phase-3 of the ongoing Centrally Sponsored scheme.
The government plans to boost the availability of qualified health professionals, improve tertiary care in the government sector and utilise infrastructure of district hospitals and promote affordable medical education in the country with this push.
The minister announced that new medical colleges would be set up in under-served regions with no medical college or ones with at least 200 beds. A notification by PIB said that preference will be given to district hospitals with 300 beds.
The government had earlier approved the establishment of 58 new medical colleges in Phase 1 and 24 colleges in Phase 2, apart from the 75 under the Phase 3. Of these, 39 medical colleges under Phase 1 have already become functional, and the rest will be made functional by 2020-21.
The ministers also announced 100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in coal mining and associated infrastructure and 26 per cent FDI in digital media. “Cabinet has approved establishment of an international Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI); PM Modi to launch CDRI during UN Climate Summit in New York on 23rd September 2019,” said Javadekar. The Cabinet also approved sugar export policy for evacuation of surplus stocks during sugar season 2019-20.
