Telangana sanctioned 29 Govt medical colleges in 8 years: Harish Rao

For a medical college with 150 seats and 600 bedded hospital, it costs about Rs 500 crore, Health Minister Harish Rao said in reply to a question

Hyderabad: Health Minister T Harish Rao said after formation of Telangana, the State government had sanctioned 29 government medical colleges in the last eight years and of these, 21 were functioning and eight were in the process of being established.

At present, there are 56 medical colleges in the State with an intake of 8,515 MBBS seats (government and private) and 2,890 PG seats (government and private). Of the 56 medical colleges, there are 26 State government medical colleges, one ESI medical college, one AIIMS and 28 private medical colleges.

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The State government collects the lowest fee of Rs.10,000 per year in government medical colleges and spends about Rs.30 lakh towards education expenditure of one doctor. Similarly, Rs.45 lakh was being spent for a PG doctor and Rs.75 lakh for a super specialty doctor, the Minister said during question hour in the Assembly here on Saturday.

To establish one medical college with 100 seats and 430 bedded hospital, it costs about Rs.300 crore. For a medical college with 150 seats and 600 bedded hospital, it costs about Rs.500 crore, he said in reply to a question.

Considering the hardships faced by Telangana students in pursuing medicine in other States and abroad, it was made mandatory for private colleges to allot the ‘B’ category seats to students hailing from the State, he explained.

Further, as per the Andhra Pradesh bifurcation rules, 15 percent seats in five medical colleges were being allotted to Andhra Pradesh for 10 years. However, this clause was mandatory for colleges set up prior to formation of Telangana and in colleges established post bifurcation, seats were meant only for Telangana students, he added.

AIMIM Floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi said 60 percent seats were earmarked as ‘A’ category seats in minority colleges and it was 50 per cent in non-minority colleges. Due to this, nearly 300 meritorious students were missing the opportunity to pursue medicine, he said and demanded the ongoing counseling to be stopped immediately and the matter to be addressed.

In reply, the Minister said a meeting would be convened at the earliest to discuss the issue.