Date:15/05/2003 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2003/05/15/stories/2003051503211200.htm

National

Centre's nod for private medical college in T.N.

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI May 14. Even as Government doctors joined the fortnight-long strike by medicos against opening of private medical colleges in Tamil Nadu, the Centre has given provisional permission for the starting of a medical college in Kanchipuram. The Union Health Ministry has granted a letter of intent, which is the first step in a two-stage approval process, to the Chennai-based Meenakshi Ammal Trust to set up a medical college at Enathur in Kanchipuram, with an annual intake of 100 students.

According to sources in the Ministry, it was now just a matter of time, may be two to three months, before the final approval was granted as only a few formalities remained to be completed. The college could commence operation from the coming academic year, they added.

The proposal had been pending for several years, as initially, the State Government had declined to grant the eligibility certificate for it on the ground that there was no need for any new medical college in the State.

The Trust authorities then approached the Court and on its intervention the State gave the certificate in October last year. There are already 17 medical colleges in Tamil Nadu — 12 in Government and five in the private sector.