70 out of 157 Approved New Medical Colleges Functional till now: Health Minister informs Parliament

New Delhi: Out of the 157 new medical colleges, which had been approved by the Central Government under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme, a total number of 70 medical colleges have become functional till now, MoS Health Dr. Bharati Pravin Pawar informed the Lok Sabha on Friday.

Referring to the Centrally Sponsored Scheme for 'Establishment of new medical colleges attached with existing district/referral hospitals', the Minister of Health informed that "Under this scheme, Government of India has approved establishment of 157 new medical colleges in three phases. Out of these, 70 medical colleges have become functional till date."

The minister was responding to a bunch of questions related to the steps taken by the Union Government to set up medical colleges in backward areas of the country to tackle malnutrition and infectious diseases in view of the lack of health facilities in those areas.

Answering to these queries, the Minister informed the Parliament that "Health is a State subject and primary responsibility to ensure availability of public health facilities lies with the State Government. However, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare administers a Centrally Sponsored Scheme for 'Establishment of new Medical Colleges attached with existing district/referral hospitals' with preference to underserved areas and aspirational districts, where there is no existing Government or private medical college."

"This step will help to improve the healthcare delivery system in these areas. Under this scheme, Government of India has approved establishment of 157 new medical colleges in three phases. Out of these, 70 medical colleges have become functional till date," added the Minister.

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Details of Approved Medical Colleges approved and made functional under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme for 'Establishment of new medical colleges attached with existing district/referral hospitals':

In the first phase, a total number of 58 medical colleges had been approved under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme. Among these, in A & N Islands, 1 medical college had been approved in Port Blair district, in Arunachal Pradesh 1 medical college in Naharlagun.

4 medical colleges in Dhubri, Nagaon, North Lakhimpur and Diphu district of Assam had been approved in the first phase, whereas, in acase of Bihar, the 4 approved medical collegea re located in Purnia, Chhapara, and Samastipur. 2 medical colleges in Rajnandgaon, and Sarguja of Chhattisgarh, 3 in Chamba, Hamirpur and Sirmour of Himachal Pradesh, 1 medical college in Bhiwani district of Haryana, 3 medical colleges in Dumka, Hazaribagh and Palamu of Jharkhand had also been approved in Phase one.

In case of Jammu & Kashmir, 5 medical colleges were approved in Anantnag, Baramulla, Rajouri, Doda, and Kathua, whereas 7 medical colleges in Datia, Khandwa, Ratlam, Shahdol, Vidisha, Chindwara, Shivpuri of Madhya Pradesh had also been approved under Phase I of teh Central Scheme.

1 medical college had been approved in each of Maharashtra (Gondia), Meghalaya (West Garo Hills), Mizoram (Falkawn) and Nagaland (Kohima). 5 medical colleges were approved in Odisha in Balasore, Baripada (Mayurbhanj), Bolangir, Koraput, Puri, 1 in SAS Nagar of Punjab, 7 in Barmer, Bharatpur, Bhilwara, Churu, Dungarpur, Pali, Sikar of Rajasthan, 5 medical colleges in Basti, Faizabad, Firozabad, Shahjahanpur, Bahraich of Uttar Pradesh, 1 in Almora district of Uttarakhand, and 5 medical colleges in Birbhum (Rampur Hat), Cooch behar, Diamond harbour, Purulia, Raiganj (North Dinajpur) of West Bengal.

Phase II:

In Phase II of the Centrally Sponsored Scheme, 24 medical colleges had been approved in 8 States. Among these, 5 medical colleges had been approved in Bihar, 2 in Jharkhand, 1 in Madhya Pradesh, 1 in Odisha, 1 in Rajasthan, 8 in Uttar Pradesh, 5 in West Bengal and 1 medical college had been approved in Sikkim.

In Bihar the medical colleges approved in Phase II are located in Sitamarhi, Jhanjharpur, Siwan, Buxar, Jamui districts, in case of Jharkhand, medical colleges are in

Phase III:

Among the 75 medical colleges approved in Phase III of the Centrally Sponsored Scheme, 15 are in Rajasthan, 14 in Uttar Pradesh, and 11 are in Tamil Nadu. In case of Rajasthan, the medical colleges are located in Alwar, Baran, Bansawara, Chittorgarh, Jaisalmer, Karauli, Nagaur, Shri Ganganagar, Sirohi, Bundi, Sawai Madhopur, Tonk, Hanumangarh, Jhunjhunu, and Dausa. 14 medical colleges are located in Bijnaur, Kushinagar, Sultanpur, Gonda, Lalitpur, Lakhimpur Kheri, Chandauli, Bulandshahar, Sonbhadra, Pilibhit, Auraiya, Kanpur Dehat, Kaushambi, Amethi of Uttar Pradesh, and 11 in Tiruppur, Nilgiris, Ramanathapuram, Namakkal, Dindigul,, Virudhunagar, Krishnagiri, Tiruvallur, Nagapattinam, Ariyalur, Kallakurichi of Tamil Nadu.

Apart from these, 3 medical colleges have been approved in Piduguralla, Paderu, Machilipatnam of Andhra Pradesh, 1 in Kokrajhar of Assam, 3 in Korba, Mahasamund, and Kanker of Chhattisgarh, 5 in Narmada, Navsari, Panchmahal, Porbandar, Morbi of Gujarat, 2 in Udhampur, Handwara (Distt. Kupwara) of Jammu & Kashmir, 4 in Chikkamagaluru, Haveri, Yadgiri, Chikkaballapura of Karnataka, 1 in Leh of Ladakh, 6 in Rajgarh, Mandla, Neemuch, Mandsaur, Sheopur, Singrauli of Madhya Pradesh, 1 in Nandurbar of Maharashtra, 1 in Churachandpur of Manipur, 1 in Mon of Nagaland, 1 in Kalahandi of Odisha, 2 in Kapurthala, Hoshiarpur of Punjab, 3 in Rudrapur (Distt. Udham Singh Nagar), Pithoragarh, Haridwar of Uttarakhand, and 1 in Jalpaiguri of West Bengal.

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