Union Health Minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad said that the two new medical institutes in Srinagar and Jammu would improve the health facilities in the state of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K).

Speaking on the sidelines of Sher-e-Kashmir International Convocation Center (SKICC), Azad said: “In both Srinagar and Jammu, we are setting up two big medical institutes and one would be completed by this year and the other by next year. This will benefit the people of the state, who used to go to big cities like Delhi and Chandigarh for medical treatments.”

The minister said that opening of the two institutes would provide a huge reprieve to the commoner.

The union health minister added that required infrastructure would be improved on modern lines in all the districts of the state.

Moreover, Azad, the former chief minister of J&K, said that the union health ministry would offer every support under National Rural Health Mission to J & K to reinforce its healthcare sector.

Mr. Azad informed that Union Government has already sanctioned 34 district hospitals and out of them 17 have been completed and other 17 will be completed very soon.

Meanwhile, speaking on the same occasion, Omar Abdullah, chief minister, J & K asked the union government for a special central assistance for the state’s health sector.

Abdullah said that the remote and far-flung regions of the state justify area-specific healthcare attention.

On the issue of shortage of doctors in the state, the CM said that his government is considering to make it compulsory for fresh medical graduates to serve in the state for at least ten years before going abroad.