Chandigarh, June 6: The Punjab Cabinet on Thursday approved the creation of 994 posts of teaching faculty, para-medical staff & MTW (Multi Task Workers) for the upcoming Government Medical College at Mohali, with an intake capacity of 100 MBBS seats.

The Cabinet, which met here under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, took the decision, which would pave the way for commencement of academic sessions at the college from 2020-21. The creation of the posts was in conformity with the minimum requirements laid down by the Medical Council of India for ‘100 MBBS seats’.

Punjab CabinetDisclosing this, a spokesperson of the CM’s Office said that a proposal for 168 posts of Medical Teaching Faculty, 426 posts of Para-Medics and 400 posts of Class IV staff was earlier cleared by the Officers Committee headed by the Chief Secretary. The posts would be filled up in a phased manner over a period of five years. The creation of these new posts would entail an additional financial burden of Rs.25 crore in the first year, which would subsequently go up to Rs. 41 crore in the fifth year.

The State Government had already made available 14.01 acres land belonging to District Hospital, Punjab Health Systems Corporation and State Health Training Institute, besides additional land of 9.2 acres of Gram Panchayat, Jhujhar Nagar. This makes it a total of 23.21 acres for the establishment of the new Medical Institute (as per the norms, the minimum requirement for a new college with 100 seats is 20 acres).

Notably, the Government of India considered the Detailed Project Report (DPR) dated March 27, 2018 of the State Government, including the status of land and finally, and accorded its approval on June 21, 2018 to the proposal for setting of a new Medical College at an estimated cost of Rs.189 crore, to be shared between the Central and the State Government in the ratio of 60:40.

It may be recalled that originally the cost of sharing pattern was 75:25 but due to inordinate delay by the previous government and as per new guidelines of NITI Ayog, GoI, the cost sharing pattern was changed to 60:40. The Government of India has already released Rs.102 crore out of its share of Rs.113 crores.