More medical seats soon,State ready with land for AIIMS-like institutes

State ready with land for AIIMS-like institute in Rae Bareli

REPORT IN INDIAN EXPRESS LUCKNOW EDITION TODAY

The state government has completed the procedure of acquiring land for the proposed AIIMS-like medical institute to be established in Congress president Sonia Gandhi's parliamentary constituency Rae Bareli. The government is now awaiting the Centre's direction for the transfer of land.

A total of 148.15 acres has been acquired for the institute, which the Uttar Pradesh government plans to hand over free of cost to the Government of India. "The land was already identified and the procedure for acquiring the land has been completed recently. Now we can transfer the land to the Government of India whenever we get the instructions," said Dr K K Gupta, Director General of Medical Education (DGME), UP who was made the nodal officer for the purpose. "We have not received any communication from the Centre till now."

The land includes 98.3 acres belonging to Nandganj Sihohi Sugar Mill and 49.85 acres at Aiyma and Dariyapur villages of Sultanpur. The Government of India had first proposed the medical institution in 2008 but the then Mayawati government did not allot land for the institute because of objections to its location. In February, the Samajwadi party government, however, decided to hand over the land to the Government of India free of cost.

More medical seats soon

The state government is also planning to make the newly established medical colleges in Azamgarh and Jalaun functional this year. If both the colleges get the required Medical Council of India (MCI) approval for starting their first batch, 200 additional seats for MBBS will be added in the state for the new batch. "The inspection team from MCI is expected to come to Azamgarh by the end of the month. We are trying to make Azamgarh and Jalaun medical colleges functional by this year," said Gupta.

The combined pre - medical test (CPMT) for MBBS admissions is due in the state in June. The DGME said that if the state gets clearance for any of the two medical colleges, the seats can be added for the 2013-14 batch even during the counselling sessions of CPMT.

The MCI team will also inspect the newly established Kannauj Medical College for its second batch of MBBS students, he said.