MULANKUNNATHUKAVU (THRISSUR DISTRICT) : Minister for Health and Family Welfare P.K. Sreemathy said here on Sunday that the Government would sanction Rs.10 crores for the development of government medical colleges in Alappuzha, Kottayam and Thrissur.

Inaugurating the State conference of the Kerala Government Medical College Teachers Association (KGMCTA) on the Thrissur Medical College campus, the Minister said the Union Government had assured the State that it would favourably consider the request to increase the seats in these three medical colleges by 50 each.

Ms. Sreemathy said Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Anbumani Ramadoss had promised to consider the matter when she met him in New Delhi on Saturday. "We have requested the Union Minister to grant us more time to augment the facilities in these medical colleges as recommended by the Medical Council of India (MCI) to become eligible for enhancing the seats. We hope the Union Government would agree to enhance the seats by 50 in this academic year itself," Ms. Sreemathy said.

She said the Union Government had also agreed to consider the State's request to sanction the grants given to health centres in rural areas to these three medical colleges as well, as they were located away from cities and towns.

The Minister said the State Government was taking steps to upgrade the status of the Government medical colleges in Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode. She said the Government was also considering a proposal to introduce telemedicine systems in health centres by networking through appropriate technologies. Conceding that shortage of staff was a major handicap faced by the public health system in the State, the Minister said the Government would take appropriate steps to fill the vacancies of medical and paramedical staff in the sector. She said the Director of Medical Education (DME) had already started the process of selecting medical personnel eligible for promotion, by convening the Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC).

Appeal to managements

The Minister appealed to managements of self-financing colleges to recognise the good intentions of the Government in introducing the Self-Financing Colleges Act. The Government's objective was to provide opportunities to meritorious students to go in for professional education at affordable cost. The interests of the managements have also been protected in the Act. "The Education Minister has made it clear that the Government is willing to hold more discussions on the Act if the managements feel it necessary," Ms. Sreemathy said.

DME Meenu Hariharan; Principal of Thrissur Medical College M.J. Cyriac; Kerala Government Medical Officers Association present Sunny P. Orathel; Indian Medical Association senior vice-president A.K. Abdul Khader; and KGMCTA office-bearers M.A. Sasikumar, P.K. Sasidharan, K.A. Raju, M. Jayakumar, Roy Abraham Kallivayalil, Mahadevan and K. Mohanan, were among those who spoke on the occasion.

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