Nine districts may have to wait longer for med colleges in Karnataka

The Congress' five guarantees are likely to come in the way of the 'one district, one medical college' policy. Currently, 22 districts have government medical colleges. According to the policy, the government is yet to set up medical colleges in nine districts.

Sources said the medical education department is unlikely to set up colleges in the remaining nine districts due to financial constraints.

Speaking to reporters during his visit to the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS), Medical Education Minister Dr Sharan Prakash Patil said he needs to discuss establishing new medical colleges with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

The minister, however, said that establishing medical colleges in every district was a scheme announced by Congress during the 2018 Assembly election. "It was our poll promise. Currently, we have medical colleges in 22 districts and we don't know if we can establish them in the rest of the districts because of the guarantees announced in our manifesto. We will take up the issue with the Finance Department," the minister said.

Patil also said that the government will decide after talks with the CM.

Meanwhile, the minister shared his thoughts about having a tertiary-level government super specialty hospital in every division in the state. "As of now we have super specialty hospitals at some divisions including Bengaluru. My aim is to have super specialty hospitals at all divisions through the medical education department," Patil said.

Patil said that his priority will be to give maximum seats to the merit quota. "Even during my previous tenure (as medical education minister), I had given importance to increasing seats under merit quota. My stand remains unchanged. Students' interests should be protected and at the same time institutions should not feel that they are not considered appropriately," he said.