CHENNAI: Unless the Medical Council of India (MCI) changes its policy, which appears unlikely, the State’s health department and the medical university can do little for the 216 students of DD Medical College. Despite the pressure tactics that are currently being applied by the students — a desperate attempt to secure admission before the August 30 deadline runs out — medical education officials have their hands tied. “At every stage we have been very sympathetic to them. Even when the Madras High Court ordered us to accommodate them in government colleges last January, we didn’t even file a counter appeal,” explained a top official. Eventually, even that ray of light was overturned in April, as a division bench upheld all the earlier rulings, calling their admission illegal and holding nobody but themselves to blame.
The DD Medical College and Research Institute in Tiruvallur had been in existence since 2008 and had increased its intake to 150 in 2010. However, after the 2010-11 batch was admitted, the MCI revoked the licence to the college as they found several irregularities and falsified records, and denied them permission to admit batches from 2011-12. “Despite that order, the college admitted 216 students privately and promised that they would get the accreditation within the next two years,” explained a university official.
While the initial batch was allowed to finish out that academic year, the subsequent batches were left out in the cold, especially after their founder Deen Dayal Naidu was charged and arrested late last year. “Looking at their plight, the government actually made a special provision and offered them seats for Masters in Biochemistry and Biotechnology and so on, but they rejected it outright, asking for government medical seats,” explained the health department official. Not only is it impossible to admit students to government colleges outside the single-window counselling system, increase of seats is also regulated by the MCI.
And so the dust settled on the issue till another admission season dawned. With renewed fervour, the students asked the government to take over the college and run it, especially as drafting such an Act was already under consideration.
“The deliberation over an Act to take over and run illegal colleges is very far away from coming into force,” he added.