Centre to provide Rs 3,000 cr to improve health units in Tamil Nadu

Stalin seeks NEET exemption from PM

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday that the Centre will be providing Rs 3,000 crore to Tamil Nadu in the next five years to set up urban health and wellness centres, public health labs and critical care units across the state.

At a time when Tamil Nadu was at loggerheads with the Centre over the medical entrance issue, Modi said that there is a need to address the regional imbalance in the healthcare system while inaugurating 11 medical colleges across the state. Taking forward Tamil Nadu's battle on the medical entrance issue, chief minister M K Stalin on Wednesday urged the Prime Minister to give an exemption to the state from the National Entrance cum Eligibility Test (NEET)-based admission to medical courses.

The new medical colleges will add 1,450 more seats for MBBS aspirants in the state, taking it from 5125 medical seats in 27 colleges. The medical colleges in Virudhunagar, Namakkal, The Nilgiris, Tiruppur, Thiruvallur, Nagapattinam, Dindigul, Kallakurichi, Ariyalur, Ramanathapuram and Krishnagiri districts were set up at an investment of around Rs 3,750 crore, of which Rs 2,145 crore was the centre's contribution.

This is for the first time that the country is seeing the launch of 11 medical colleges at one go. "Just a few days back, I had inaugurated nine medical colleges at the same time in UP. I am getting to break my own record," he added.

The Prime Minister also highlighted the importance of medical education during the time of the pandemic, alleging that the previous governments did not pay attention to it due to vested interests. He said that the issue of shortage of doctors was addressed only by the current government. "In 2014, our country had 380 medical colleges, in the last seven years, the number has gone up to 596 medical colleges, an increase of 54 per cent. Similarly, in 2014, our country had around 82000 medical undergraduate and postgraduate seats. In the last seven years, this number has gone up to around 148,000. This is an increase of about 80 per cent," he added.

The PM also pushed for further investment in the healthcare sector stating that the future will belong to societies that invest in healthcare. “The once in a lifetime Covid-19 pandemic has re-affirmed the importance of the health sector," he said, stating that India has the potential to become a destination for quality and affordable healthcare.