By Our Reporter
Shillong, Aug 26: UDP MLA from Nongpoh, Mayralborn Syiem on Saturday said that he would still like to see a government medical college come up in Ri-Bhoi as the district is among the top five aspirational districts in the country as per the NITI Aayog’s Delta Ranking.
As it may be mentioned that a private medical college will come up under the premises of USTM in Ri-Bhoi, Syiem hopes that the coming up of the private medical college will give the students of the state the opportunity to pursue their MBBS degree.
Delighted that a private college is coming up in the district, Syiem said, “The aspiration to have a government medical college in the district will not die down. We hope that one day this dream of the people of the district will become true”.
Stating that human wants are unlimited, he said that he has been mentioning in the past two to three years that Ri-Bhoi is eligible to have a government medical college being an aspirational district.
He however said that for this to happen, the district hospitals have to meet the laid down criteria like the number of beds and other health care facilities, adding that the Civil Hospital at Nongpoh as it stands at present does not fulfill the requisite criteria.
“But we hope that things will improve in the coming years so that the district hospital in Nongpoh meets the criteria to be upgraded into a medical college,” the Nongpoh MLA said.
Meanwhile, Syiem said that it is a positive development that three medical colleges will come up in the state.
According to him, this only proves that things are moving on the right track under the leadership of Chief Minister Conrad Sangma and Health Minister, Ampareen Lyngdoh.
He pointed out that the work on the medical colleges in Shillong and Tura began a few years back.
“The main objective of the state government to have these medical colleges was to address the problem of shortage of doctors. I am sure it will be mandatory for students who will complete their MBBS degree from these three medical colleges to serve in the government run health centres,” he said.