The Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh and Nagaland Deputy Chief Minister during their meeting in New Delhi on September 15. (PIB Photo)
New Delhi, September 15 (MExN): Nagaland Deputy Chief Minister Y Patton on September 15 called on the Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh in New Delhi and discussed wide range of issues related to development projects and proposals submitted by the State Government.
During the meeting, the Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Singh pointed out that as a special consideration and priority, the Centre has sanctioned for the State of Nagaland, second Government Medical College within a short span of three years.
He said, it is an irony that for over 70 years after independence, Nagaland was possibly the only State in the country which did not have a single Medical College of its own, a DoNER Ministry release stated, quoting the Minister.
This has led to inconvenience to the patients as well as aspiring Medicos who were constrained to travel outside the State, he added.
Dr Singh further noted that for a small State with a population of just about 20 Lakh, two centrally funded Medical Colleges are an indication of the priority that the Central government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi accords to the North Eastern Region and the peripheral far-flung States like Nagaland.
The first ever Medical College for Nagaland was sanctioned about three years in Kohima and the second Medical College has now been sanctioned to be located at district Mon in Eastern Nagaland, informed Ministry’s release via PIB.
Deputy CM also took up with the DoNER Minister the State projects to be executed under NERDS (North East Region Development Scheme) and expressed keenness to expedite the road project of Chendang Saddle to Noklak which is about 31 Kilometre, it said.
Dr Singh observed that all the schemes sanctioned by the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER ) and the North Eastern Council (NEC) are based on the priority cited by the respective State governments, it added.
The DoNER Minister however noted that there has been certain inevitable delay in some projects due to unfortunate COVID conditions, and added that the DoNER Ministry had been forthcoming in providing financial assistance to the North Eastern State governments in the very beginning of the COVID pandemic.
Even now, the Ministry is processing proposals from several States for funding of Infectious Disease Hospitals and healthcare for the future, he inforrmed.
