Madras High Court dismisses plea seeking earmarking of land for Tenkasi medical college

As per a recent media report by The Hindu, pointing out that getting the approval of the National Medical Commission and various other authorities is a necessary precondition of establishing a medical college, a Division Bench of Justices T.S. Sivagnanam and S. Ananthi pointed out that to date authorities have not raised any concrete proposal to establish a medical college in Tenkasi district.

The court stated that it took note of the fact that the State government cannot by itself make a decision to have a medical college. Hence, the bench has dismissed the petition filed by a resident of Tenkasi. Earlier, a similar petition also was dismissed. Last year the people of sankarankovil requested the authorities to plan for setting up a Government Medical College along with a Govt Hospital at Sankarankovil, Tenkasi District.

Previously Medical Dialogues reported that Tamil Nadu Government was waiting for the National Medical Commission's (NMC) nod to launch the MBBS course in 11 new medical colleges in the state. The State Government had already allocated Rs 2,470.93 crore in the 2021 interim budget for these colleges. These new colleges will be built at Ramanathapuram, Virudnagar, Dindigul, Nilgiri, Ariyalur, Nagapattinam, Kallakurichi, Thiruvallur, Tirupur, Namakkal and Krishnagiri. If NMC, the apex medical body regulating medical education, approves of these institutes, almost all the districts of the State are going to have at least one medical college.