Govt racing against time to remove deficiencies ahead of MCI deadline

Bhanu P Lohumi

Tribune News Service

Shimla, April 20

The state government is racing against time to remove glaring deficiencies pointed out by the Medical Council of India (MCI) during the inspection in December 2016 so that the proposed government medical colleges at Mandi and Chamba may become functional from 2017-18.

The MCI team had found the two proposed colleges lacking proper infrastructure and faculty. The state government has requested the Union government and the MCI for re-inspection of infrastructure and faculty in Pt Jawaharlal Nehru College at Chamba and Lal Bahadur Shashtri College at Ner Chowk (Mandi) and is pinning its hopes on Union Health Minister JP Nadda.

In case the re-inspection is not held before April 30, 2017 and the MCI does not give the nod, the admissions in these colleges would be deferred to 2018-19 session.

The MCI also inspected Dr Y S Parmar Medical College, Nahan, which admitted the first batch of MBBS last year, and pointed out glaring deficiencies in the infrastructure. The college authorities have submitted compliance before hearing committee on March 15 and the MCI’s recommendations are awaited. In fact, huge deficiencies in respect of Medical College, Nahan, had put a big question mark over the renewal of permission for admitting the second batch of MBBS.

Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had approved three new medical colleges at Chamba, Hamirpur and Nahan under Centrally sponsored scheme to add about 300 more MBBS seats in the state. It also provided a grant of Rs 195 crore to the state government over the past three years for creation of required capital assets for these colleges.

The fourth college is being set up in the ESIC hospital complex at Ner Chowk in Mandi which has been acquired by the state government from by the Ministry of Labour and Employment.

In case of Chamba College, which applied for LOP (Letter of permission) for academic session 2017-18, the MCI listed as many as 30 deficiencies. The compliance report submitted by the state government before hearing committee was disapproved by the MCI. The state government has again requested the MCI for re-inspection before April 30 which is under consideration of the MCI.

There is 12 per cent shortage of senior residents in Chamba college but the faculty is enough to start the first batch. Arrangements have been done with the district hospital to fulfill the other requirements, a top administrative in the health department said.

Major shortcomings were also pointed in respect of the proposed ESIC medical college, Ner Chowk by the MCI which rejected the proposal for starting classes from 2017-18 sessions. The state has taken up the matter with the ministry which has forwarded it to the MCI for appropriate action.

The prospects of the three medical colleges becoming functional entirely depend on J P Nadda as less than two weeks are left for meeting the April 30 deadline for re-inspection and normally the MCI does not entertain such requests on such a short notice. Only personal intervention of the Union minister can help Himachal avail 200 more MBBS seats from 2017-18.