8 new medical colleges in UP, 5 in Bengal out of 24

New Delhi: The Uttar Pradesh would get a maximum number of medical colleges out of the total 24 medical institutions announced in the Union Budget 2018-19 by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley while presenting Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government's full-term budget on Thursday.

According to sources, the government has identified eight district hospitals for converting it into medical colleges in the BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh, while five district hospitals in Trinamool Congress-ruled West Bengal would be converted into medical colleges.

The Centre has planned to upgrade five such hospitals in Bihar to medical colleges, while two district hospitals of Jharkhand would become full-fledged medical colleges.

The other states where medical colleges would be institutionalised include Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Sikkim and all the states would get one medical college each as per the budget announcement.

In his Budget speech, the Finance Minister had said that in order to further enhance the accessibility of quality medical education and healthcare, the government will be setting up 24 new government medical colleges and hospitals by upgrading existing district hospitals in the country.

"It would ensure that there is at least one medical college for every three Parliamentary constituencies and at least one government medical

college in each state of the country," the Finance Minister had said.

"The decision to upgrade existing district hospitals into medical colleges would help in addressing the shortage of qualified doctors in the country...," said Monashish Sahu, a medical graduate from Banaras Hindu University (BHU).