NRI quota in MBBS course for a fee

Guwahati: Finance minister Ajanta Neog has proposed a massive facelift for healthcare, which includes reservation of seats in MBBS course in the state’s medical colleges from the state quota for NRI and Assamese diaspora students on payment of “reasonable fees”.

She said in her speech, “Despite the increase in graduate medical seats to 1,500 in Assam, it is seen that the NRI and Assamese diaspora is not able to take advantage of the state quota due to certain restrictions. It is therefore proposed some seats will be reserved for them in the state quota on payment of reasonable fees. This will also add to the revenue of the college society and make them financially more sustainable.”

Apart from MBBS seats, PG (MD/MS) seats have also been increased considerably (722 seats for PG course and 46 seats for DM/MCh in various super specialty disciplines), she said.

Neog proposed some new interventions in order to provide affordable and accessible healthcare service for all, which include 1,000 new ambulances to the hospitals, setting up of nine new BSc nursing colleges in the medical colleges at Diphu, Jorhat, Tezpur, Lakhimpur, Nagaon, Nalbari, Barpeta, Kokrajhar and Dhubri.

“Thriving for Excellence in Healthcare” to make the state the health hub of the northeast by 2026, Neog said in order to boost healthcare facilities along with medical education, the government has decided to start functioning of three more new medical colleges at Kokrajhar, Nalbari and Nagaon from the next academic session — 2023 — while four other new medical colleges are coming up at Tinsukia, Charaideo, Biswanath and Kamrup (Metro) district.

“In addition to these, construction of another eight new medical colleges at Karimganj, Goalpara, Tamulpur, Bongaigaon, Dhemaji, Morigaon, Golaghat and Sivasagar have been taken up by the government,” she said.

She added that establishment of superspeciality wing at existing six medical colleges and infrastructure improvement of six district hospitals and Swasthya Bhawan in Guwahati have been taken up.