With no financial approval, new medical colleges won't take off: minister

Medical Education Minister Sharan Prakash Patil on Tuesday said that his government will not be able to commence works on the six proposed medical colleges as it had failed to get financial approval for the same.

Speaking to reporters here, Patil said that the Finance department had not given clearance for the construction of these colleges as the amount required for each college was Rs 200 crore.

The colleges were to come up in Chitradurga, Bagalkot, Haveri, Yadgir, Chikkaballapur and Chikkamagaluru, and works were to start this year.

The minister said after the Congress government came to power, it had announced the setting up of 13 medical colleges in the state. Of these, works on six colleges (with 150 seats each) had commenced in Bidar, Kalaburagi, Koppal, Karwar, Kodagu and Chamarajanagar.

He said the department was hopeful of the medical college at the Bowring and Lady Curzon hospital in the city starting operations next year. This meant that an additional 150 seats would open up at the time of admissions next year. The government had written to the Medical Council India for necessary clearances, he said.

Patil said the foundation stones for the proposed super-speciality hospitals in the three revenue divisions of Mysuru (Rs 140 crore), Kalaburagi (Rs 110 crore) and Belagavi (Rs 150 crore) would be laid in one month's time as the required amount had been made available.

The upgraded Kidwai Memorial Institute of Cancer, at a cost of Rs 250 crore, will be thrown open in March 2018, and the government was planning to invite President Ram Nath Kovind for its inauguration, the minister said.

BDA site controversy

Patil, who is in the midst of a controversy for "eyeing" a 4,000-sq-ft site in HSR Layout allotted by the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) under 'G' category in 2011, maintained that the Authority was to be blamed for the confusion.

He said he was eligible for a site in Bengaluru and he had applied under 'G' category. The BDA was free to allot him a site in any of its layouts.

"An internal enquiry is going on in the BDA. My political opponents are trying to use this against me as the elections are nearing. The BDA should either allot the said site to me or to the complainant who was allotted the same before me," he said.