CHENNAI: The National Medical Commission on Wednesday issued a one-year approval for 150 MBBS seats each to the Government Kilpauk Medical College and Thoothukudi Medical College. However, official sources said NMC didn’t cite any reason for reducing the approval period to one year even with the college being one of the oldest in the city. The colleges were previously given approval for five years. This comes at a time when the state has vehemently opposed the centralised counselling for medical courses.
The Government Kilpauk Medical College was established in 1960 and the Thoothukudi Medical College in 2000. These colleges were given recognition for 100 MBBS seats and later it was increased to 150. The colleges will have to apply for approval again next year to admit MBBS students.
Sources at Kilpauk Medical College said NMC was not satisfied with the implementation of Aadhaar enabled biometric attendance system during the recent inspection, and told the college to submit a compliance report. After the same was submitted, NMC called for a virtual hearing, following which it gave the approval.
However, officials said there are many practical difficulties in implementing the Aadhaar-enabled biometric attendance system. “There are no provisions in the system for professors to take casual leave also. Without analyzing any practical difficulties, NMC directly implemented it and made it mandatory. That is the problem in so many medical colleges this year,” said a source.
Meanwhile, officials said, the state will get approval for other medical colleges one by one, mostly before the counselling for MBBS and BDS seats begin. The state is still awaiting the final approval for Government Stanley, Dharmapuri and Tiruchy medical colleges. Citing practical difficulties, government doctors also recently decided to mark attendance only while entering duty and skip exit even as they were instructed to mark attendance twice per day.
After the National Testing Agency (NTA) released NEET-UG results on Tuesday, the selection committee under the Directorate of Medical Education began preparations for conducting counselling. Officials said the dates for counselling are yet to be finalized and they are almost done drafting the prospectus.
Health Minister Ma Subramanian had recently said there will be no common counselling for undergraduate medical courses in the state this year.