HYDERABAD: The Medical Council of India (MCI) has sanctioned 200 more seats in government medical colleges in Telangana state. Deputy Chief Minister T Rajaiah, who also holds Medical and Health portfolio, received the communication to this effect on Saturday.
 Earlier, the MCI had sanctioned  350 seats to AP.
With the additional 200 seats, the total seats in Telangana will be 2,950. He said that of the 200 new seats, 100 were sanctioned for RIMS in Nizamabad and 50 seats each to Gandhi medical college in city and Kakatiya medical college in Warangal.
  Announcing this at a media conference, Rajaiah said that Telangana was done injustice in medical seats in the united AP. Now, some justice was done to Telangana. “This is the first victory of Telangana government, ” Rajaiah said.
  He said that the Telangana government achieved eight seats in PG counselling, which were taken away by AP government. The eight seats were not shown in Telangana quota during counselling, the Telangana professors like Ramesh Reddy (member of MCI), Balireddy and others worked out and got the seats benefiting the Telangana students, the Minister said.
The Minister said that under PM Swasthya Suraksha schemes, Kakatiya Medical colleges and Adilabad Medical colleges would be upgraded. He said so far Rs 100 crore was spent on RIMS in Nizamabad and the government sanction more funds to complete the works.
Singareni to fund
Rajaiah said that Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL) came forward to give Rs 200 crore for establishing a medical college. The medical college would be established either in Khammam district or Karimnagar district.
 He thanked the Union Minister Harsha Vardhan for giving his nod for establishing AIIMS for Telangana.
 Rajaiah said that though Rs 200 crore was sanctioned for the upgradation of Osmania General hospital in the city, the work was not taken up due to the heritage sites besides the hospital. The Osmania hospital height could not be increased more than the heritage structures, he said. “We are examining to take the land belonging to Chanchalguda jail. A decision will be taken soon,” he added.
He said that the government was committed to its assurance to upgrade PHCs as 50-bed hospitals, one 100-bed hospital in each Assembly segment and one super speciality hospital in every district.
The Minister said that more diseases like malaria would be covered under Aarogyasri scheme in addition to the existing 938 diseases. There were sufficient funds for the scheme, he said. Currently, the government hospitals were conducting 30 per cent surgeries of the total surgeries conducted under Arogyasri. “We will take them to 50 or 60 per cent soon by strengthening the government hospitals,” Rajaiah said.