OPS flays Stalin for trying to take credit for hike in med seats

AIADMK coordinator and former chief minister O Panneerselvam on Sunday flayed the DMK government for claiming credit for additional medical colleges opening in Tamil Nadu.

“It is the achievement of the AIADMK government. Chief Minister MK Stalin’s claim that due to his efforts the number of medical colleges has increased in the state is highly condemnable,” the AIADMK coordinator said.

The AIADMK leader said doubts will also arise in the minds of the people that how come the number of MBBS seats have increased as the DMK came to power just six months back.

Stating that it was reported that of the total 593 medical colleges across the country, Tamil Nadu has 69 of them, he said “Of the availability of 45,698 medical seats in India, the state alone has 10,375, and similarly, of the 312 government medical colleges across all the state, here it has 37 with MBBS seat capacity of 5,125 against the country’s overall all seats of 22,933.”

Panneerselvam claimed that the increase in the number of medical colleges were due to the pro-active efforts taken by the then AIADMK government.

Pointing out that in 1954, there were only eight medical colleges functioning in Tamil Nadu, he said after AIADMK founder MG Ramachandran took over as chief minister, medical colleges were opened in Cuddalore and Salem districts.

He said after the J Jayalalithaa government came to power, medical colleges were established in eight districts such as Erode, Kanniyakumari, Theni, Vellore, Sivaganga, Tiruvannamalai, Chennai, and Coimbatore regions.

“Similarly, in continuance to that, under the guidance of “Amma” (Jayalalithaa) medical colleges were also set up in Pudukkottai and Karur districts,” he added.

AIADMK deputy opposition leader in the house OPS further claimed that as per the policy of the government that there should be at least one medical institution in every district, measures were taken to open colleges in 11 districts such as Ramanathapuram, Virudhunagar, Krishnagiri, Namakkal, Nagapattinam, Dindigul, Nilgiris, Tiruvallur, Tirupur, Ariyalur and Kallakurichi with the help of the Union government, which provided 60 per cent of financial assistance.”

“Due to the efforts of the AIADMK government’s initiative to open colleges in the remaining districts, an additional of 1,650 medical seats were available,” he said.

Panneerselvam said that the increase in the number of medical colleges were due to the pro-active efforts taken by the then AIADMK government