It’s a historic day for the medical education sector of the state of Uttar Pradesh when agreements were signed for the establishment of medical colleges on PPP mode in the Shamli and Mau districts.

In the presence of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, ratings of all nursing and paramedical institutions of the state were released under Mission Niramaya here on Wednesday.

Besides, under the ‘Mentor-Mentee’ process adopted to improve the quality of nursing and paramedical institutions, eight new institutions were presented with mentor certificates by the chief minister.

Speaking on the occasion, the chief minister said, “Before 2017, there were only 12 medical colleges in the state. In 2017, realising the concept of ‘one district-one medical college’ of the respected Prime Minister, today medical colleges are being established in all the districts of UP. Today, government medical colleges are operational in 45 districts and under-construction in 16 districts.”

He pointed out that six years ago Mau and Shamli were known for the scare of mafia and migration of people, but today medical colleges are being established in these districts. It is like a dream come true.

Yogi said paramedical and nursing institutions were neglected by the previous governments. The state medical faculty itself was ailing and there was no focus on quality education. The situation called for something like ‘Mission Niramaya’ and the government provided it. Under this, 12 good institutions were identified as mentors. As a result of the ongoing reform process with the mentor-mentee policy, today eight more institutes have been upgraded as mentors. This is the proof of the changing system.

“There can be no compromise with quality in educational institutions. Be it a medical college or hospital, nursing or paramedical college, if the quality is there, the standard is met, then its benefits  must reach people without delay and if it does not meet the standard, then such institutions should be removed from its list,” he added.

“Quality ranking of nursing and paramedical institutions done by Quality Control of India with accuracy and transparency will inspire other institutions also to do better,” he said.

The CM said it was decided to establish medical colleges on PPP (Public Private Partnership) model in 16 unserved districts of the state. In this sequence, private investors have been selected in Maharajganj and Sambhal in the past and construction of medical colleges is in progress at both places. Today an agreement has been signed between the Rajiv Samajik Shiksha Sewa Sansthan in Mau district and private partner Gyan Chetna Educational Society in Shamli district and the Uttar Pradesh government. A private medical college will be set up at each place by a private investor with an investment of about Rs 250 crore.

Describing the Chief Minister’s vision as inspiring for an innovative effort like ‘Mission Niramaya’, QCI Secretary General RP Singh said that following this effort of Uttar Pradesh, NITI Aayog has asked the Indian Nursing Council to implement a similar system across the country.

Earlier, the QCI Secretary-General briefed the Chief Minister in detail about the process followed for deciding the ratings. He said that within 34 days the QCI team went to every nursing and paramedical institute in the state to evaluate the quality of education there on the basis of the given parameters.