Nagaland has got the approval to set up its first medical college since it got statehood in 1963, Health and Family Welfare Minister P Paiwang Konyak said on Wednesday.

Noting that getting approval for the first medical college as historic, he said that the state government would send the acceptance letter soon to enable the MARB to issue the Letter of Permission for starting the academic year 2023-24.

"We received the approval for a 100 MBBS seat medical college from the National Medical Commission, Medical Assessment & Rating Board (NMC, MARB) on Tuesday,? Konyak told a press conference here. The state government will send the acceptance letter within a week to enable the MARB to issue the Letter of Permission for the academic year 2023-24," he said.

Announcing the development, Konyak said that this is a great and historic day for the people of the Northeastern state. Addressing a press conference, Nagaland Health and Family Welfare Commissioner Y Kikheto Sema informed that the session of the new medical college will start functioning by June-July this year. He further added that out of the 100 MBBS seats offered by the college, 85 of them would be reserved for candidates from Nagaland. The remaining 15 seats would be open for All India category candidates.

Notably, the NDA government has been making continuous efforts to revamp the educational and medical infrastructure in the Northeastern states for the integration and opening up optimal welfare and opportunities to the Northeastern people. Earlier on April 14, Prime Minister Modi inaugurated Northeast’s first AIIMS in Guwahati to offer super-speciality medical services to the people of Assam as well as the rest of the Northeast. Besides AIIMS Guwahati, the Prime minister also virtually inaugurated three other medical colleges in Nalbari, Kokrajhar, and Nagaon.