Working With The AIIMS in TN: Visit by the Central Team

The National Institute of Ageing is likely to be set up soon in Tamil Nadu said Jagat Prakash Nadda, Union Minister for Health. A Central team will be soon visiting the state for the purpose.

Mr. Nadda appreciated the state for their efforts in implementing the schemes where the state has utilised the sanctioned budget for Japanese Encephalitis. Under this, 93 percent of the target population have been vaccinated. He also declared that additionally three more districts from the state would be included under the Japanese Encephalitis program and this will make a total of eight districts.

In a review meeting, C. Vijaya Baskar, State Minister for Health, said: "The budget allotment in the State for public health has been doubled to Rs. 7,004 crore. In medical education, 610 MBBS seats have been added in the last 2 years, taking the number to 2555."

Earlier, in a conference at Vellore, Mr. Nadda said that the government is willing to make education more independent and autonomous and not political. He also promised that issues in higher education will be addressed from the academic angle and not from the political end. The Minister expressed his thought on having a strong regulatory system to curb growing corruption and capitation in the field of education.

"The country has a federal system but we give more autonomy to States. We want to cooperate with States, whichever political party is ruling," he said.

The Minister added points on having a balance between quantity and quality in education so that, autonomy could be maintained in its real sense.

"In our experience, these agencies instead of expanding higher education are trying to curb expansion," said VIT Chancellor G. Viswanathan. He added that the five essential things leading higher education include: affiliation, approval, NOC, permission and recognition. He also said: "In the United States, none of them exists. Still, it is considered leader in higher education. We should work out a system that is suitable to our country."

Source: Medindia

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