JNS: Prime Minister, Narendra Modi virtually inaugurated 11 new medical colleges and a new campus of Central Institute of Classical Tamil (CICT) in Tamil Nadu on Wednesday.
Addressing the gathering, PM said that with the inauguration of 11 medical colleges and the inauguration of the new building of the Central Institute of Classical Tamil health of the society is being furthered and at the same time our connection with our culture is getting stronger.
He pointed out that shortage of doctors had remained an issue for a very long time and the current government made it a priority to address this critical gap. He informed that in 2014, the country had 387 medical colleges.
In the last seven years only, this number has gone up to 596 medical colleges. This is an increase of 54%. In 2014, India had around 82 thousand medical Undergraduate and Postgraduate seats. In the last seven years, this number has gone up to around 1 lakh 48 thousand seats.
This is an increase of about 80%. In 2014, there were only seven AIIMS in the country. But after 2014, the number of AIIMS approved has increased to 22. At the same time, various reforms have been undertaken to make the medical education sector more transparent, he said.
The Prime Minister pointed out that by inaugurating 11 medical colleges in one go in Tamil Nadu, he, in a way, broke his own record when he recently inaugurated 9 medical colleges in Uttar Pradesh.
He expressed happiness that by establishing colleges in two aspirational districts of Ramanathapuram and Virudhunagar along with one in hilly district of the Nilgiris, regional imbalance is being addressed.
Union Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya, Dr L Murugan and Dr Bharati Pawar, Chief Minister Tamil Nadu Thiru M.K.Stalin were present on the occasion.