At last, Kochi can boast of its own government medical college. After an eight month-long wait, the state government has decided to take over the Cochin Medical College functioning under the Cooperative Academy for Professional Education(CAPE).
The announcement made by the state government on the takeover of the college from the control of CAPE will open up new avenues in health care and medical education sectors.
“Once the takeover proceedings are completed, we will have one more medical college in the government sector, where students who aspire to mould a career in the medical field can pursue courses by paying reasonable fees,” points out Dr N K Sanil Kumar, an urologist who was in the forefront of the movement demanding the takeover of the CMC.
The CMC follows the same admission procedures as that of private medical colleges. The college offers 100 seats for MBBS course, of which 50 per cent is allotted for candidates in the merit quota, 35 per cent for self-financing sector and 15 per cent for NRIs.
The state government announced the takeover of the CMC in April this year. Following the announcement, the District Collector was deputed with the task of preparing an asset-liability report.
After the Collector submitted the report, the government appointed a committee headed by the Secretary to the Health Department to study the recommendations in the report. Though the Collector and the expert committee recommended the takeover of the medical college, the matter was pending with the government for months, creating apprehension among the people.
As the uncertainty continued,there were allegations that the government was deliberately delaying the project. Justice V R Krishna Iyer came up with a protest and criticised the government for the delay. “It’s a fact that vested interests who did not want the CMC to be taken over by the government were behind the delay. However, due to pressure from the public and NRKs, the government was forced to take a final decision on it,” said Dr Sanil.
Delay in the takeover was a setback for the institution. The college lost a chance to get 50 additional MBBS seats only because it was not a government medical college. The admission procedures adopted by the college for allotting NRI seats also sparked off a controversy. The NRI quota seats were later filled under the supervision of the Admission Supervisory Committee headed by Justice J M James.
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