New Medical Colleges to be Opened in Six Districts of Uttar Pradesh | 23 Sep 2022

Why In News?

On September 22, 2022, Uttar Pradesh Medical Education Principal Secretary Alok Kumar informed that the central government has given in-principle consent to open medical colleges in six districts of the state under the Viability Gap Funding (VGF) scheme. This work will be done under the 'One District One Medical College' program.

Key Points

• Under the 'One District One Medical College' program, the process of opening medical colleges in Mahoba, Mainpuri, Baghpat, Hamirpur, Hathras and Kasganj districts on PPP mode has started. Investors will be selected through tenders for running medical colleges.
• In Uttar Pradesh, medical colleges are to be opened on PPP model in 16 districts. It will cost around Rs 1525 crore to open medical colleges in six districts. The central government will provide a subsidy of Rs 1012 crore in this. A college will get an average subsidy of Rs 160 crore each.
• Work has started by selecting investors to open medical colleges in Maharajganj and Sambhal. Apart from this, the process of opening medical colleges in Shamli and Mau is underway.
• Principal Secretary of Medical Education Department Alok Kumar said that for the medical colleges to be opened on PPP model, the state government will give the district hospital and land on lease for 33 years. After this, the investor will return the medical college. It will be the property of the state government. Also, stamp duty exemption and subsidy in equipment will be given.
• Alok Kumar said that at present there are 65 medical colleges in Uttar Pradesh, including government and private. The central institutes include two AIIMS, one BHU and one Aligarh Medical College in Rae Bareli and Gorakhpur.
• Amethi, Auraiya, Bijnor, Bulandshahr, Chandauli, Gonda, Kanpur Dehat, Kaushambi, Kushinagar, Lakhimpur Kheri, Lalitpur, Pilibhit, Sonbhadra and Sultanpur districts will get medical colleges by 2022-23. Their construction work is underway.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi had inaugurated medical colleges in nine districts - Deoria, Etah, Fatehpur, Ghazipur, Hardoi, Jaunpur, Mirzapur, Pratapgarh and Siddharthnagar - last year.