Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday dedicated to the nation AIIMS, Guwahati and three new medical colleges in Assam, while laying foundation stone of the Assam Advanced Health Care Innovation Institute (AAHII) and launching Aapke Dwar Ayushman, among health projects which will benefit not just Assam, but the entire North-East.

Greeting people on the auspicious occasion of Rongali Bihu in Guwahati, the Prime Minister launched health projects worth more than Rs 3,400 crore, and said work has started in mission mode to distribute Ayushman Cards to citizens of Assam. The 500-bed super speciality AAHII will undertake research in collaboration with IIT Guwahati.

Modi said people have in the past nine years noted improvements in the connectivity infrastructure of the North-East, covering road, rail and air sectors. The reality was the region had seen unprecedented work in social infrastructure too, expanding education and health facilities.

Last year, he said, in Dibrugarh, he had opened and laid foundation stone for several hospitals and today, three medical colleges and the AIIMS were opened. Facilities in dental colleges too have been expanded. People are taking advantage of new facilities as travelling has become easier now.

The Prime Minister said whenever he talked about development projects in different parts of the country, some people get highly irritated. They complain that they had ruled the country for decades but were not getting any credit for work. This sentiment for seeking credit and lording over people had harmed the nation tremendously, Modi said.

Serving the common people is like serving God, he said. The people who ruled the nation earlier were greedy of credit and alienated the entire North East by their attitude. His Government, he said, works with a spirit of service and never treated the North East as a distant place.

The Prime Minister expressed happiness that people of the North East have taken charge of their destiny and development. “We are moving forward with the mantra of India’s development through the development of the North East. In this movement of development, the central government is supporting States like an associate, and today’s ceremonies are a proof of this,” the Prime Minister said.

Referring to the challenges faced by the region, the Prime Minister said that development becomes impossible when the politics of dynasty, regionalism, corruption and instability dominate. This too had happened with the healthcare system.

In the fifties, the first AIIMS was established in Delhi and after this no effort was made to open AIIMS in other parts of the country. Some initiatives were taken during the tenure of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, but they were not carried forward.

It was only after 2014, these issues were addressed by the present government, he said. Mr Modi said that in recent years the government started work on 15 AIIMS and most of them have already started teaching and treatment.

Policies followed by previous governments had created a scarcity of doctors and medical professionals. In the last nine years, the government had worked on a huge scale to boost medical infrastructure and medical professionals in the country, he said.

Highlighting developments in the field of medical infrastructure, the Prime Minister said that approximately 300 medical colleges became functional in the last nine years, compared to only 150 medical colleges in a decade before 2014.

He said that the number of MBBS seats in the country doubled to around one lakh in the last nine years, while PG seats have seen an increase of 110 per cent.

With the establishment of the National Medical Commission for the expansion of medical education in the country, the Prime Minister underlined that reservations have also been ensured so that youth from backward families can fulfill their dreams of becoming doctors.

The Prime Minister said that more than 150 nursing colleges have also been declared as part of this year’s Budget. In the North East, the Prime Minister said, the number of medical colleges along with the number of seats have doubled in the last nine years, while work is underway for several new ones.

The Prime Minister credited the solid work in the medical and healthcare field to a strong and stable government at the Centre. He said in BJP governments policy, intentions and commitment are not driven by self-interest but by the spirit of ‘nation first – countrymen first’. That is why, he said, the focus of the government was not on vote bank but on reducing the problems of the citizens.

Mr Modi said, “Our government is also modernizing India’s health sector according to the needs of the 21st century.” He said the Ayushman Bharat Digital Health Mission and Digital Health IDs will prepare health records of the citizens with one click and will improve health services.

So far, 38 crore health IDs have been issued and more than two lakh health facilities and 1.5 lakh health professionals have been verified, he said. Noting the growing popularity of e-Sanjeevini, the Prime Minister mentioned the feat of completing 10 crore e-consultation through the scheme.

Governor of Assam Gulab Chand Kataria, Chief Minister of Assam Himanta Biswa Sarma, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Mansukh Mandaviya, and Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Bharati Pawar were present.