Budget promises 10,000 new medical seats, Telangana doctors question Centre’s lack of support to the State

Finance Minister announces 10,000 new medical seats, but experts from Telangana raise concerns over quality and infrastructure.

As Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced in the Union Budget that 10,000 additional seats will be added in medical colleges and hospitals within the next year, doctors and experts from Telangana have expressed concerns over the Centre’s approach to medical education expansion. They pointed out that during the earlier decision of establishing 157 new medical colleges across the country, not a single one was allocated to Telangana.

With Telangana now having one medical college for each of its 33 districts, experts argue that while the Centre ignored the State’s needs when it required support, the State has now successfully developed its own medical education infrastructure.

“When Telangana was formed in 2014, the State had only five government medical colleges. Eleven years later, the number has risen to 34, but not a single one was provided by the Centre. The State government took the initiative to strengthen its medical education system on its own and today Telangana has 4,090 MBBS seats in its government medical colleges,” said Dr. Kiran Madala, Secretary General of the Telangana Teaching Government Doctors Association (TTGDA).

During her budget speech, Ms. Sitharaman highlighted the government’s contribution to medical education, stating, “Our government has added almost 1.1 lakh undergraduate and postgraduate medical education seats in ten years, an increase of 130%. In the next year, 10,000 additional seats will be added in medical colleges and hospitals, towards the goal of adding 75,000 seats in the next five years.”

While acknowledging that expanding medical seats is a positive step, Dr. Kiran stressed the importance of ensuring quality. “The existing seats should be strengthened first. The government must provide adequate infrastructure, faculty and essential resources for medical colleges to function efficiently. Without these, such announcements indirectly push students toward private institutions instead of strengthening public medical education.”

Echoing similar concerns, Dr. Ranga Reddy Burri, President of the Infection Control Academy of India, warned that adding 10,000 seats without improving faculty strength and infrastructure could compromise quality of medical education. “More institutions without quality control may result in under trained doctors, weakening the future of Indian healthcare,” he said.