Three new medical colleges to function from this year: Acharya

MANGALORE Feb 24

Karnataka is emerging as the biggest health care education destination mainly due to quality of education that is being imparted here. The State Government is doing its bit to provide quality education to deserving meritorious students and this will be realised when three new government medical colleges become functional in 2007-08, Minister for Medical Education V.S. Acharya has said.

Inaugurating the 10th anniversary celebrations of Nitte Institute of Physiotherapy on its campus at Deralakatte near here on Friday, Dr. Acharya said the Government created a record of sorts when it opened three new medical colleges in one go last year. The colleges would become functional at Shimoga, Bidar and Raichur from the coming academic year and this would create more opportunities for deserving students, he said.

The Government had taken steps to streamline admissions to private professional colleges in advance. We had entered into a memorandum of understanding with self-financing institutions with regard to admission of students there, he said, and added that the seat-sharing matrix and fee structure had been decided upon. This MoU would result in more free seats being made available to meritorious students, he added.

The Government would start a dental college at Bellary from the next academic year. Steps were also being taken to give further impetus to study of Ayurveda and bring it into the mainstream of medicine studies, he said. A special Panchakarma unit would be set up at Mysore at an estimated cost of Rs. 9 crore shortly. A detailed project report was being prepared for the proposed unit, he added. Ali Irani, president of Indian Association of Physiotherapists (IAP), who was the guest of honour, urged the Minister to place qualitative checks on mushrooming physiotherapy colleges in the State. He also sought Dr. Acharya's cooperation in ensuring uniform syllabus for physiotherapy studies across India and urged him to expedite the process of setting up a State physiotherapy council, similar to those in Maharashtra and Delhi.

N. Vinay Hegde, president of Nitte Education Trust, said the trust would take steps to improve infrastructure in its constituent colleges at a cost of Rs. 150 crore. In addition, Rs. 12 crore would be spent on upgrading clinical material at K.S. Hegde Medical Academy, he said. Savita Ravindra, vice-president of IAP, released a souvenir. Sreekumaran, principal, was present.

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