The Medical Council of India (MCI) may cancel the additional MBBS seats granted to government Medical colleges in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, as the governments in both the states have been reluctant to upgrade the infrastructure facilities in their medical colleges.
Earlier in 2013, the MCI had granted about 800 medical seats to government medical colleges in both Telangana and Andhra regions with an undertaking from the government that additional infrastructure facilities will be upgraded at the earliest. But even after one year, the earlier state government had not taken up any initiative in this regard. Now that the earlier Andhra Pradesh state is divided into two new states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, the onus of upgrading the infrastructure facilities falls on the respective governments of both the states.
Recently, MCI had toured all the colleges in both the regions and inspected the premises before finally sanctioning more seats in the existing medical colleges. The colleges which have been found defaulting with lack of infrastructure are Government Medical colleges in Nizamabad and Gandhi Medical College in Hyderabad, both from Telangana state. While in Andhra Pradesh, the MCI had found fault with Government Medical colleges in Nellore, Tirupathi, Andhra Medical College and SV Medical College.
In Telangana state, the Nizamabad medical college which has a capacity of 100 MBBS seats is expected to get the MCI whip once again for not upgrading the infrastructure facilities. Last year also MCI had recommended to the central government not to renew permission for admission of the second batch. Earlier, the executive board of MCI had said that the college had more than a dozen deficiencies, including dearth of teaching faculty, inadequate hostel accommodation, absence of Intensive Cardiac Care Unit (ICCU) and absence of equipment in the embalming room of the anatomy department, among others.
While explaining about the MCI inspections, Dr P Srinivas, director of health and medical education said, “The MCI has submitted their report to the government. There is still scope for improvement and the administration can make a few changes and appeal to the government for a fresh inspection. There is no formal announcement yet.”
Though all the colleges have sufficient infrastructure for the existing seats, the state governments have failed to upgrade facilities for additional seats given during 2013. “Even after giving more than a year’s time the government has failed to upgrade facilities. In the inspections carried out now, infrastructure has proved to be the biggest drawback. In a class of 200 students, the professor has to ensure that he has the attention of all the students. For this, the seating arrangement is a very important factor. These issues were pointed out but implementation has not been up to the mark,” informed a source at MCI.
In addition to infrastructure, the government colleges are also lacking the required faculty in anatomy and bio-chemistry department. This is the main reason for rejecting 50 extra seats to Gandhi Medical College.
Sources also opined that the earlier government in combined Andhra Pradesh had not paid proper attention while dispersing the funds. ‘When the seats were to be increased the government authorities should have ensured that these facilities are in place. Now persuading the MCI in the last moment will obviously fail and ultimately the college and the students are the loss,” remarked a senior professor.