THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a major setback for the management of SR Medical College (SRMC) and Research Centre in Varkala, the Union Health Ministry has directed the state government to withdraw its Essentiality Certificate (EC). The action comes against the backdrop of the findings that MC provided inadequate and substandard facilities to its MBBS students. It was the assessors appointed by the Board of Governors of Medical Council of India which noted gross deficiencies in the operation of the college.
It was on Friday that the Medical Education wing of the ministry directed the state government to cancel the EC and to send a proposal for shifting the students to other medical colleges in the state. “It is a major win for us. We were abused and ridiculed for our protests demanding a good learning environment. Later the assessors also found merit in our complaint as they cited faculty and resident deficiencies, inadequate clinical material availability and others. The decision to withdraw the EC is a welcome move,” said one of the students who had protested under the banner of Stand with Students of SRMC.
Meanwhile, the Kerala University of Health Sciences (KUHS) is of the stance that the redeployment of students is going to become a daunting task for the government. It also added that the direction form the ministry will also affect the third-year students of the college attending the exam.
“The students cannot be admitted to government medical colleges. Also, the self-financing colleges will not permit them. Thus redeployment is going to become a major challenge. It has to be clarified whether the third-year students who were provided with provisional registration could write their exam,” said a KUHS officer.
Earlier, the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau which also conducted an inquiry-based on a complaint from a group of students had recommended redeploying students of the college. It had looked into the complaints of inadequate infrastructural facilities and cases of ghost faculty and patients by the college management.