The government said it has taken strong action against medical colleges not maintaining proper faculty and that action will be taken against similar delinquent institutions. Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya told Lok Sabha today, December 9 that state governments are responsible for keeping faculty members in case of government-run medical institutions and in case of private medical colleges, the responsibility lies with the respective management, as per a PTI report.
Further, the union minister said the centre will keep sending inspection teams to medical colleges along with taking undertakings and affidavits from medical colleges for maintaining proper faculty. "We have to give quality education to students, we have to produce good doctors. We have taken strong action against those institutions which were not maintaining proper faculty and some more action will be taken against some other institutions," he said. Moreover, the government will not hesitate to take strong action against those medical colleges which are found to be involved in irregularities, he added.
AIIMS Madurai
Responding to a question about the progress of the AIIMS - All India Institute Of Medical Science Madurai, he said classes have already begun for students. And the works of the permanent building will begin soon following some delay because of the changes in the proposed structure. These changes are leading to an increase in budget from Rs 1,200 crore to Rs 1,900 crore.
In this regard, he said "The government of India is committed to serving the people of Tamil Nadu through AIIMS Madurai. No need to worry, we will complete the project. We will build a good AIIMS (in Madurai)." Mandaviya said to augment the availability of qualified human resources in health and to reduce disparities in the existing geographical distribution of medical colleges in the country.
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare administers a Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) for the establishment of new medical colleges attached to existing districts or referral hospitals with a preference for underserved areas and aspirational districts, where there is no existing government or private medical college. He said under the scheme, a total of 157 medical colleges have been sanctioned in three phases with fund sharing between the Centre and State Governments in the ratio of 90:10 for Northeastern and Special Category States and 60:40 for others.
According to the scheme guidelines, the state government is implementing agency while the state government looks after the planning, execution and commissioning of the projects. The release of funds under the scheme is based on the pace of expenditure, the release of corresponding state shares and receipt of utilisation certificates, as well as demand from the State and UT Government, he said, as stated in a report by PTI.
