BENGALURU: In what could be good news for under-graduate medical seat aspirants in the state, the Medical Education Department is all set to add 400 more medical seats in government medical colleges.
The proposals submitted by government medical colleges for enhancement of seats have been cleared by the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS), Bengaluru. The Department of Medical Education is waiting for the nod of the Medical Council of India (MCI).
Dr Sachidanand, Director Medical Education Department, told Express, “For the coming academic year, for admissions through NEET 2017, we have submitted proposals for enhancement of seats in seven government medical colleges and we are also trying to develop the infrastructure at the new college announced at Bowring Hospital in Bengaluru.”
Along with government colleges, some private colleges have applied for enhancement and for fresh affiliation.
“Basaveshwara Medical College, Chitradurga, Ambedkar Institute of Medical Sciences and BVB Nijalingappa Medical College, Bagalkot, have applied for fresh affiliation. Rajarajeshwari Medical College, Bengaluru, has applied for enhancement of seats. All these proposals are pending before MCI since 2016 and are expected to be accepted,” he said.
Sachidanand added, “The infrastructure, staff and all the necessary facilities are available at the colleges where we have applied for enhancement of seats and we are confident of getting the MCI approval.”
There are 16 government-run medical colleges in the state with an intake of 2,200 seats. This is expected to go up to 2,600 for June 2017 admissions.
“Bangalore Medical College alone offers 250 seats, nine colleges have an intake of 150 each and six colleges offer 100 seats each. Apart from this, if the intake of private colleges is increased, the government will get its share in the form of government quota seats,” said Sachidanand.