Gujarat proposes 550 extra seats, MCI disposes

AHMEDABAD: The Medical Council of India (MCI) has directed four medical colleges to submit compliance report within 15 days and thereby seek a re-inspection. The report is over issues of lack of staff, infrastructure and other deficiencies raised by the inspection teams. Due to this, there is a question mark over the availability of 430 existing medical seats in the state for admissions.The admissions procedure for these seats will begin from May 12, when the result of HSC (science) is announced.
Medical fraternity in Gujarat has alleged witch hunting by the MCI which has currently denied permission to four new medical colleges thereby dashing hopes of the state to get 550 more medical seats this year. These proposed medical colleges include Patan, Gotri and Gandhinagar as well as Gujarat Cancer Society.
What's more, MCI has also denied permission to Vadodara Medical College to raise seats from 180 to 250 and Jamnagar Medical College to raise seats from 175 to 250. In Rajkot Medical College, the seats have been decresed from 100 to 50. Also, the medical fraternity here is crying foul over MCI refusing permission to nearly 430 existing seats in four medical colleges namely, Adani Medical College in Bhuj, LG Medical College in AHMEDABAD and 30 and 50 seats in Surat and Bhavnagar Medical Colleges respectively.
Senior officials of the colleges alleged that injustice is being done to Gujarat just because ex-MCI president Ketan Desai is from Gujarat. "The MCI is being exceptionally harsh on the state colleges. Colleges in other states have much inferior infrastructure but they have not been harassed like this," a senior official said.
The inspection of Sola Government Medical College which has 150 seats and Kesar Sal Medical College with 100 seats has been done, but no decision has come yet.
Administrations of the existing colleges are in a mad scramble to fulfill the deficiencies pointed by the MCI teams to salvage the existing 430 seats. The last date for MCI to give permission to colleges across the country is May 15.
MCI's denial to LG Medical College shocks many: The Medical Council of India's (MCI) denial of permission to LG Medical College in AHMEDABAD, which has existing 150 medical seats, asking it to submit a compliance report in 15 days has come as a shocker to many in the medical fraternity. But those in the know of things said that the college had taken too many liberties in their bid to put the best foot forward to the MCI team. Sources said that the college had reportedly shown resident doctors of Shardaben Hospital and VS Hospital to be on the staff of LG. Also, the MCI has disqualified many professors on the grounds that they are also doing private practice. Also, the hostel building for the students has not been completed.