Punjab: New Medical College with 100 MBBS seats to come up in Malerkotla district

Chandigarh: Punjab's newest district Malerkotla will soon get a medical college to be set up at the cost of nearly Rs 370 crore.

The decision to set up a medical college in the Malerkotla district was taken in a meeting of a state-level panel, chaired by Chief Secretary Vini Mahajan, an official statement said on Friday.

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The decision to set up a new medical college in the newly created district at a total cost of Rs 368.92 crore was taken in line with Chief Minister Amarinder Singh's earlier announcement, it added.

The meeting was also attended by Congress MP from Patiala, Preneet Kaur, the statement added,

The committee has been constituted under the Prime Minister's 15-point Programme for the economic, social and educational development of the minorities, the statement said.

Preneet Kaur said a medical college was needed to provide better healthcare and medical education facilities to the people of Malerkotla and its adjoining areas.

Amarinder Singh had last Friday announced the creation of a new district of Malerkotla, carving the Muslim-majority town from Sangrur district.

The chief minister had also announced a medical college, a women's college, a new bus stand and a women police station in Malerkotla.

Preneet Kaur said the establishment of this medical institute would also help to create more employment opportunities in the medical field besides providing medical educational opportunities to youths.

It would help in overcoming the shortage of doctors in Punjab, she added.

Chief Secretary Mahajan said the medical college would be set up over 24.44 acres of land and would be connected to the local sub-divisional civil hospital.

She said the land for this project has been provided on lease by the Punjab Wakf Board.

She also said 100 students are proposed to be admitted to the medical college in the first year.

It has been estimated to spend Rs 43.66 crore per annum for the operation of the college, she said, adding that the local civil hospital would be upgraded to a 500-bed hospital.

Principal Secretary (Social Justice and Minorities) Raji P Shrivastava said in the meeting that a proposal to open a new agriculture college under Punjab Agriculture University, Ludhiana, in Kalanaur block of Gurdaspur district under the Central scheme has also been sent to the Union government.

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