Nagaland: Only state in India without a medical college

February 7, 2021 50 Views No Comment

Morung Express News
Dimapur | February 6

It is a known fact that Nagaland has no medical school. It has been so for 57 years since gaining statehood in the Union of India.

Besides that, Nagaland, the second oldest state in the north-east, also has the distinction or rather the ignominy of being the only state in India without a medical college. This is as per data tabled by the Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare (H&FW) Ashwini Kumar Choubey in the Lok Sabha on February 5.

Other NE states, which gained statehood much later than Nagaland, are faring much better in this aspect. Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram today have their own medical colleges up and running.

Meghalaya has NEIGRIHMS, which introduced MBBS courses in 2008 followed by Post Graduate courses; Arunachal has Tomo Riba Institute of Health and Medical Sciences, which was established in 2017; Mizoram has Zoram Medical College established in 2018.

India, on the whole, has 562 medical colleges at present. As per the data, Sikkim has 1, Tripura- 2, Manipur- 2 and Assam- 8.

For the bigger states, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu are the state with over 50 medical colleges to their credit. Karnataka and Maharashtra are neck to neck with 61 and 60 medical colleges, respectively; followed by Uttar Pradesh with 57 and Tamil Nadu- 53.

The southern states further fared better with a greater share of medical colleges. Andhra Pradesh and Kerala have 31 each and Telangana- 34.

In the western region, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat has 30, followed by Rajasthan with 24. West Bengal has 26 and more surprisingly, the tiny union territory of Puducherry has 9, one more than Assam’s 8.

As for Nagaland, the ceremonial foundation stone laid for the medical college at Phriebagei in Kohima will turn 7 in March this year. The foundation stone was laid by the incumbent and also the then Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio in March 2014.

It is unclear when actual construction began but as per available reports, the nod of approval to begin construction was given in mid-2017 when Dr Shürhozelie Liezietsu was the Chief Minister. It was later reported that the construction began sometime in 2018.

In August 2020, state Minister for Health & Family Welfare S Pangnyu Phom said that construction resumed after a temporary stoppage owing to the COVID-19 lockdown. Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio had also inspected the construction site in August 2019. Earlier, in October 2018, Phom was reported expressing the desire to complete the medical college by 2020.

As per nagahealth.nagaland.gov.in, the target was to begin academic session by 2016-17, tentatively.

The total cost of the project was estimated at Rs 189 cr on 90:10 costsharing between the Centre and the state. In December 2019, Union Minister of State H&FW Choubey told the Lok Sabha that the Central share of 90 percent or Rs 170.1cr had been released to the state.

A second medical college is also in the offing, as announced in September 2020 by the state government, in Mon.