Assam gets approval for eighth medical college in Lakhimpur

GUWAHATI: The number of medical colleges in Assam has gone up to eight with a new one in Lakhimpur town in northern part of the state getting approval from the National Medical Commission to start classes for the ongoing session.

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma took to Twitter and said, with the new medical college in Lakhimpur, the number of MBBS seats in the state has risen to 1,100. "In a major milestone for Assam, I'm glad to share that @NMC_IND has approved a new Medical College for Lakhimpur with 100 seats for MBBS. A matter of great personal pride as I see this 8th College, I dreamt of, taking shape," Sarma tweeted.

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State Health Minister Keshab Mahanta, in a statement, said the letter of approval was received from the NMC by the state's medical education directorate during the day.

Recently, NMC decided to extend all recognized postgraduate medical courses for another one year for the academic year 2020-21.

In an official notice, NMC said, “As per the postgraduate medical education board, it has been decided that recognised PG courses will be extended to another one year when those are granted by the specific university (in which the PG course are running under or granted) for the academic year 2020-21.”

On September 15, the NMC issued a letter addressing all principals, vice-chancelllors of medical universities and said that it will be valid for a period of one year or as notified by the commission, which is earlier.

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Further, NMC also approved the newly established Virudhunagar Government Medical College to start operating soon with an intake of 150 MBBS seats.

Virudhunagar GMC is among the 11 new medical colleges allowed by the government to operate from this academic year. Recently, state health minister M Subramanian said that the central government has permitted the admission of 850 students to seven of the 11 new government medical colleges in Tamil Nadu.