K'taka Minister Patil meet JP Nadda, reiterates demand for AIIMS in Raichur

Bengaluru, NT Bureau: Karnataka Medical Education Minister Sharan Prakash Patil met Union Health Minister JP Nadda in New Delhi on Friday and reiterated the state government's demand to establish the All India Institute for Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Raichur.

This is the second visit by Patil to the national capital within six months seeking to set up AIIMS and sanction the NRI quota. Patil, who is also incharge Minister for Raichur district, urged the Union Health Minister to sanction AIIMS at Raichur at the earliest.

According to a statement shared by the minister's office, during the meeting, Patil also asked the Centre to sanction a 15 per cent NRI quota in the state-run medical colleges.

After the meeting, Patil said the demand for AIIMS in Raichur is long pending and only a couple of states, including Karnataka, in the country, has not been given the premier institution.

"I explained to the Union Health Minister the developmental revolution in the backward Kalyana Karnataka region that will trigger following the setting up of AIIMS. Karnataka is hopeful that the Centre will announce the establishment of AIIMS at Raichur before the closure of the current Parliament session," he added.

Seeking to introduce NRI quota in medical colleges, Patil requested Nadda to sanction supernumerary MBBS seats in government autonomous medical colleges under the Department of Medical Education from the academic year 2025-26 onwards.

The minister told the Centre to sanction a 15 per cent NRI quota by creating 508 additional supernumerary MBBS seats for admissions in 22 government medical colleges in the state, the statement said. Patil had met the Chairman of the National Medical Commission (NMC) last month and submitted the letter in this regard.

Justifying the proposal of supernumerary MBBS seats, the minister maintained that creating NRI quota within the available annual intake of seats is not feasible and expressed apprehension that disturbing the existing intake may trigger protests from students and parents.

There are 22 government medical colleges under the Department of Medical Education that had intake capacity of 3,450 seats for the year 2023-24 out of which 85 per cent (2929 seats) was Karnataka quota and 521 (15 per cent) were of All India Quota, the statement added.