The Medical Council of India (MCI) has allowed Government Medical College, Amritsar, to fill 50 more MBBS seats from this academic session. The college has been permitted to fill 200 seats instead of the 150 till now. The college had been trying this for some time.
The MCI has also allowed Patiala and Faridkot government medical colleges to fill 200 and 100 MBBS seats, respectively, for third year in a row.
Confirming this, medical education secretary Hussan Lal said the decision was taken at an MCI meeting in New Delhi on Thursday. The final orders to be issued by the ministry of health and family welfare were expected soon, he added.
“Initial inspection reports of these colleges pointed to some deficiencies, which were removed on time,” he said.
With this, the total number of MBBS seats in the three government medical colleges in the state has gone up to 500.
Permission is now awaited for 150 seats at Punjab Institute of Medical Sciences, Jalandhar, and 100 seats at Chintpurni Medical College, Pathankot. Hussan Lal said the MCI would hear these colleges in due course. The admission would be allowed in case they managed to get the MCI nod before the counselling began, he said.
Scrapping of PMET only after AG opinion
{{/usCountry}}Scrapping of PMET only after AG opinion
{{/usCountry}}Hussan Lal told HT that though the Supreme Court judgment on implementation of National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) was clear that there would be only single medical entrance exam in the country from this year, the state government has sought legal opinion from the state attorney general’s office before officially scrapping its Pre-Medical Entrance Exam scheduled for May 15.
He agreed that there was confusion among students and parents over the single medical entrance exam. “But we hope for some clarity in the near future as to how we will fill the state quota undergraduate medical seats,” he added.