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Now, Medical Council of India puts on hold admission of 150 MBBS seats in Adesh University
Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh recently announced to open a medical college in SAS Nagar, but the project is still at a nascent stage and may take two to three years to materialise.
The crisis in private medical education in Punjab refuses to go away this season. After the trouble at Gian Sagar Medical College, Banur and Chintpurni Medical College, Pathankot, the Medical Council of India (MCI) has put on hold admission of 150 MBBS seats in Adesh Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Bathinda, due to infrastructure deficiencies.
One of them, as noted in the MCI report after its inspection held in March, was pertaining to wide discrepancies in salaries of the staff, especially among assistant professors, senior and junior residents.The salary of junior residents was found to be only Rs 22,000.
Then there was acute shortage of hostel accommodation as the report noted that there were only 20 rooms against the required accommodation for 85.
Meanwhile, college principal Dr Harkiran Kaur claimed the college has already sent the compliance report to MCI after removing all the deficiencies. She expressed confidence that they will get permission for next session’s admission in a couple of weeks. “We are running the college for the past 15 years and never failed to fill seats even for once,” she added.
Meanwhile, medical education secretary Vikas Partap said, “Private colleges need to pull up their socks and remove deficiencies as per MCI’s prescribed norms in order to maintain the standard of medical education in Punjab.
STATE FACING CRISIS
There was a time when students of neighbouring Haryana used to take back door entry in Punjab due to higher number of medical seats in the state.
The trend has changed in the past couple of years after MBBS seats in Haryana increased due to opening of new medical colleges, both in the government and private sectors.
The state lost 100 medical seats following the recent closure of Gian Sagar college. Another 150 seats were lost after the Centre imposed a two-year ban on admissions in Chintpurni college, which may soon face closure in wake of the Punjab government’s recent show-cause notice over withdrawal of permission to continue its functioning.
The state is already finding it difficult to compensate for the loss of 250 medical seats in these two colleges.
Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh recently announced to open a medical college in SAS Nagar, but the project is still at a nascent stage and may take two to three years to materialise.
HARD COMPETITION AMONG MEDICAL ASPIRANTS IN STATE
With admission season set to begin next month, the number of available MBBS seats in Punjab is 975 at this stage. It means that medical aspirants in the state will face tough competition due to limited options.
Nearly 15,000 aspirants will be trying their luck even as the three government colleges in Punjab have only 500 seats.
Also, there is tough competition for admission in top-notch private institutes, including Dayanand Medical College and Hospital and Christian Medical College.
