The first municipality-run medical college in Delhi will be named after former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, making it the first institution in the country to be named after the BJP patriarch. The college was inaugurated by BJP president Rajnath Singh on Thursday.
The announcement was made by North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NMC) Mayor Azad Singh after a suggestion by Delhi BJP chief Vijay Goel. The college will be known as ‘Atal Bihari Vajpayee North Delhi Municipal Corporation Medical College’.
Inaugurating the medical college, Rajnath Singh said if the BJP was voted to power, it will ensure health insurance to all citizens of the country, particularly the poor and the needy.
He also lauded the efforts of the corporation in making the college functional in such a short span of time. “I hope that the talent of the medical students studying at the college will be exploited to the utmost extent. There is a scarcity of doctors and medical colleges,” he added.
He also said, “I hope that the remaining two municipal corporations would also follow the North Delhi Municipal Corporation and open medical colleges of their own,” he added.
The college has been constructed with a budget of Rs 7 crore and in a record time of six months. The session for the first batch of 50 students will begin on August 12.
Built in the campus of Bara Hindu Rao hospital, the college is affiliated to Indraprastha University. 85 percent of the seats would be reserved for students belonging to Delhi, Municipal Commissioner PK Gupta said. Meanwhile, East Delhi Mayor Ram Narayan Dubey also announced that the EDMC would also establish its own medical college at Swami Dayanand Hospital in East Delhi.