The Medical Council of India (MCI) will decide on Wednesday whether to restore 400 seats in five government colleges that were cancelled due to several deficiencies.
Medical Education Minister Sharan Prakash Rudrappa Patil told Express that he did not want to name the five colleges as it will create panic among students.
An MCI team, which inspected 10 government medical colleges, had cancelled 400 of the total 1,250 seats. Subsequently, the Department of Medical Education wrote to the Director of Health, Government of India, and also MCI that it will rectify all shortfalls observed by the team within six months, the minister said.
“We are keeping our fingers crossed. We are optimistic that MCI will consider our plea. Because of this, we have put off CET for medicine by four days. The MCI will announce its decision on Wednesday,” Dr Patil added.
The minister said the government’s immediate priority was to stabilise all the 10 government medical colleges before looking at the previous governments announcements of starting eight new medical colleges. It costs `400 to `450 crore to start a full-fledged new medical college and the appointment of teaching faculty to various streams is also equally tough. However, if the infrastructure is in place, then the cost comes down to around Rs 200 to Rs 250 crore.
“We want to open hospitals to cater to poor patients who cannot afford treatment in private hospitals. District hospitals are facing shortage of specialists. I will discuss with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah during the pre-budget meeting regarding opening of new medical colleges in the State,” he said.