Chennai, March 1 (IANS): Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami on Sunday said that the state will admit 1,650 more students to its medical colleges from academic year 2021-22 in addition to 3,250 seats at present.

He said the government will building 11 new government medical colleges and a sum of Rs 1,200 crore has been allocated in the 2020-21 state budget for this.

Palaniswami also said that the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) government will protect the minorities and urged them not to believe rumours spread for political purposes.

Laying the foundation stone for two medical colleges - one in Ramanathapuram district and the other in Virudhunagar district, he said that the state government had secured permission to build 11 more medical colleges with an outlay of Rs 4,500 crore to Rs 5,000 crore.

He also thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for sanctioning 11 new medical colleges.

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said that Rs 23 crore has already been released for building the Ramanathapuram Government Medical College as the first installment of the Central government's share.

He said the Centre has decided to revise the teacher-student ratio and increase postgraduate seats in medical education in the country. During the last five years, more than 14,500 postgraduate seats have been created.

According to him, the medical education is moving towards competence-based learning and there should be sharing of the best practices between various medical colleges and states for overall improvement in the area.