GUNTUR: Final year students of Guntur Medical College (GMC) boycotted work and staged a demonstration in front of the government hospital premises here on Wednesday. They demanded permanent recognition of the Medical Council of India (MCI) to their college and said the State government was not taking firm steps in ensuring the same.
Every year, MCI sanctions 50 seats to the GMC and, in 2013, it had allotted the college 150 seats. However, the MCI authorities are yet to conduct inspection for verification and approval of the said number of seats this year, which is worrying the medicos as they await the council’s response.
Demanding justice to their academic careers and expressing fear that further delay might lead to cancellation of 50 seats, the students raised slogans and did not attend their duties at Guntur Government General Hospital (GGH) for two hours.
Commenting on the issue, GGH superintendent Dr DS Raju Naidu said, “An MCI team will visit GMC this month for sanctioning of 50 extra seats. The council has completed the verification process in four of six government medical colleges in the State,” and evinced hope that the same for the remaining institutions would be done soon. He said that the State government would take steps with regard to permanent MCI recognition to the college once the inspection was completed.
Meanwhile, GMC principal Dr G Subba Rao said MCI officials were urged for college inspection on February 5, but they were yet to visit the college, which was worrying the final year students of 2013-14 batch.