In a meeting held under the chairmanship of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on November 10, the Cabinet granted permission to the Medical Education Department to allot 97,452 square metres of vacant land near Kanavati on Mhow Nasirabad Road for the establishment of a medical college. The land will be under the ownership of the municipality in Neemuch Nagar, without premium and an annual land rent of Rs 1, provided that the land is rezoned for public use.
Besides, the Cabinet also approved to start 11 new government colleges in the state. These include government colleges in Udayanagar in Dewas district, Raigaon in Satna district, Ghuwara in Chhatarpur district, Pichhore in Gwalior district, Jaisinagar in Sagar district, Gormi in Bhind district, Rajoudha, Rithorakala, Dinara and Dimani in Morena district and one in Anuppur district. Approval was given to create 233 academic and 228 non-academic posts. A recurring expenditure of over Rs 24 crore per annum and non-recurring expenditure of over Rs 5 crore has been approved to facilitate the starting of new Science and Commerce faculties in five already-functional government colleges and three new subjects at postgraduate level in one government college.
The Cabinet also approved the proposal to rename Chhindwara University to Raja Shankar Shah University. The Higher Education Department has been authorised to pass the ordinance in the form of a Bill in the upcoming assembly session. The Cabinet further granted administrative approval to the Medical Education Department to upgrade the TB Hospital in Bhopal to Regional Institute for Respiratory Diseases. Due to the creation of the Regional Institute, 12 to 15 seats can be increased from three seats in the currently available postgraduate course. Along with the creation of the Surgery department, three to four postgraduate seats will further increase.
