Extensive efforts made to expand medical education infrastructure, Lok Sabha told
New Delhi (PTI): The Union government has made concerted efforts to expand medical college infrastructure under various centrally-sponsored schemes over the past decade to make medical education more affordable, Minister of State for Health Prataprao Jadhav told the Lok Sabha on Friday.
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare administers a Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) for establishment of new medical colleges attached with existing district and referral hospitals with preference to underserved areas and aspirational districts, where there is no existing government or private medical college, Jadhav said in a written reply.
A total of 157 medical colleges have been approved across districts. Further, support has also been provided for upgrade of existing state and central government medical colleges to increase the number of MBBS (undergraduate) and postgraduate (PG) seats under another CSS scheme.
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Under these schemes, an additional 4,977 MBBS seats and 8,058 PG seats have been approved in medical colleges across the country, Jadhav said.
According to the National Medical Commission (NMC), the number of medical colleges have increased by 111.36 per cent, from 387 in 2013-14 to 818 at present, he stated.
Further, the Lok Sabha was informed that MBBS seats have increased by 151.18 per cent, from 51,348 before 2013-14 to 128,976 at present, while PG seats have increased by 172.63 per cent, from 31,185 before 2014 to 85,020 currently, thereby contributing to improved accessibility to medical education.
The fee structure for MBBS courses differs from state to state in government and private medical colleges as per guidelines issued by state fee regulatory authorities. Further, the government continuously endeavours to make medical education more affordable and prevent commercialisation, Jadhav said.
In order to make medical education affordable and accessible in the country, the fee structure of government medical colleges is subsidised. In accordance with the provision of the Constitution (103rd Amendment Act, 2019), there is a reservation of 10 per cent in UG and PG medical seats for economically weaker sections.
Also, guidelines have been framed under Section 10 of National Medical Commission Act, 2019, for determination of fees and other charges in respect of 50 per cent of seats in private medical institutions and deemed to be universities which were issued by NMC on February 3, 2022.
However, the guidelines have been challenged in various courts and are sub judice, the reply read.
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Never made casteist comment against Modi: Mani Shankar Aiyar
Jaipur (PTI): Former Union minister Mani Shankar Aiyar has rejected allegations that he made casteist remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, asserting that his comments were directed at the prime minister's "character" and not his caste.
The bureaucrat-turned-politician also said that he is called the "child of Macaulay" for speaking English, and questioned whether PM Modi knows Tamil.
Speaking on the controversy surrounding his alleged past remarks, Aiyar said he never described PM Modi as belonging to a "low caste".
"I never called him a person of 'neecha jaat' (low caste). I said he was a 'low kind of person', referring to his character. That is completely different," he said at a programme in Jaipur on Saturday evening.
Aiyar said his remarks had been misinterpreted and projected in a way that suggested he was referring to his caste. He claimed that the prime minister portrayed the comment as a caste-based insult because Aiyar is a Brahmin.
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The former minister also referred to the controversy over his alleged remark that a "tea seller cannot become the prime minister". Aiyar said he had never made such a statement and that the claim attributed to him was incorrect.
"I never said that because he is a tea seller, he cannot become the prime minister," Aiyar said, adding that his criticism was instead directed at what he described as Modi's "lack of historical knowledge".
According to Aiyar, he had questioned how a person who, in his view, did not know certain historical facts could be in the role (of prime minister) that Jawaharlal Nehru had.
He said that he had referred to historical points such as the fact that Alexander never reached Pataliputra and that while Nalanda is in India, Taxila is now in Pakistan.
Aiyar said that after making those remarks, he had jokingly added that if Modi wanted to distribute tea after losing the election, arrangements could be made.
"Who called him a tea seller? Modi himself said he was a tea seller," Aiyar said.
He also raised doubts about Modi's assertion that he sold tea at a railway platform in his hometown Vadnagar, claiming that the town did not have a railway platform until 1973.
Aiyar alleged that such claims and what he described as "misleading narratives" played a role in Modi's rise to the post of prime minister.
He alleged that remarks made about Muslims have contributed to communal polarisation in the country.
