VIJAYAWADA/GUNTUR: The delay in granting of recognition by the Medical Council of India for the additional 50 MBBS seats in the Guntur Medical College and for the entire 2014-15 batch of students in AC Subba Reddy Government Medical College in Nellore has come as a debilitating shock for aspiring doctors. The hapless students, in their last year of medicine, neither can pursue higher studies or practise medicine.
While the students are facing an uncertain future, officials of Dr NTR University of Health Sciences (NTRUHS) assure that the recognition would come soon. The Guntur Medical College, which is one of the oldest in the State, was granted 50 seats in addition to the existing 150 from the 2013-14 academic year. Similarly, AC Subba Reddy Government Medical College, which was started in 2014-15, is yet to get recognition. Though initially, the MCI permitted enhancement of seats in GMC and establishment of the college in Nellore, it eventually refused to recognise them citing lack of proper facilities.
Officials of NTRUHS and Directorate of Medical Education have initiated talks with the MCI. Dr S Appala Naidu, NTRUHS Registrar told TNIE, “Students needn’t worry about their future as MCI officials are going to inspect the facilities in the colleges soon and grant recognition. In fact it is the fault of the colleges for not maintaining standards prescribed by the statutory body. The students, who studied for five years shouldn’t be punished. So even though the colleges fail to meet the standards, on humanitarian grounds the students will not be allowed to suffer. But the MCI will punish the colleges by cutting down the number of medical seats.”
The GMC MBBS final-year students protested for MCI recognition for their degrees for the second day on Thursday. They staged protest for an hour and later attended to their duty. They fear that further delay of MCI inspection may lead to cancellation of the 50 seats sanctioned by the council in 2013.
GGH superintendent Dr DS Raja Naidu said that the students were expecting assurance from the authorities about the MCI recognition but the council team might conduct surprise inspection.