Telangana state (TS) government is planning to request the Medical Council of India (MCI)  to re-examine medical infrastructure in the government medical colleges and restore the additional MBBS seats in the state.

Giving top priority to medical education in Telangana state, the medical and health department in the state is planning to request the MCI to re-examine the infrastructure facilities in Government medical colleges and not only restore the additional MBBS seats sanctioned earlier, but also to grant 200 more additional seats to the state.

Earlier during inspections of Medical Council of India, 2 government colleges in Telangana were found to be not upgrading simple infrastructure facilities to be eligible for additional seats allocated last year. Because of which the MCI had taken a serious note of the issue and had cautioned the government medical colleges of possible cancellation of additional MBBS seats allocated earlier.

According to Dr T Rajaiah, Deputy Chief Minister of Telangana, who is also holding the charge of Medical and Health Ministry, the MCI has pointed out some simple flaws on the part of government medical colleges like installation of additional lighting systems, gardening, restructuring of class rooms etc. "The MCI has cancelled the additional MBBS seats allotted earlier because of these flaws. The college administration should have accordingly built the infrastructure in time so that we would not have faced this situation now. The lackadaisical attitude of the earlier government is the main reason for today's fate. Had the earlier government allocated its share of funds to install the required infrastructure as pointed by the MCI, we would not only have restored the additional seats but could also have got more MBBS seats this year," said Dr Rajaiah.

In view of recent MCI warnings, the Telangana state health department is planning to install the required infrastructure in the colleges and is planning to request the MCI to re-look into these issues. "We have met the MCI authorities and have ensured to take care of all the deficiencies. We will not only restore the additional seats sanctioned earlier but also secure 200 more MBBS seats this year," expressed a confident Dr. Rajaiah.

After bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh into Telangana and Andhra states, the government medical colleges have been divided. Out of 14 government medical colleges in the united AP, 5 colleges are located in Telangana state and 9 colleges are located in Andhra state. In Telangana state there are more than 800 MBBS seats of which 200 seats were added last year. In the private segment, there are 15 private medical colleges in Telangana holding 2100 MBBS seats.

As the demand for medical education is increasing day by day, the state health department is planning to start two health universities in Nalgonda and Warangal districts. In addition to this, the state government is also having plans to build NIMS (Nizam Institute of Medical Sciences) like supper specialty hospitals in each and every district of Telangana in the next two to three years.