Fearing SC rap, govt stops counselling for medical courses

Balwant Garg

Tribune News Service

Faridkot, September 24

Fearing contempt proceedings from the Supreme Court, the state Department of Medical Education and Research (DMER) today issued orders to put on hold further counselling to fill MBBS and BDS seats in all its nine medical colleges and 14 dental colleges.

The counselling for admissions for 1,300 MBBS and 1,200 BDS seats in the medical and dental colleges in the state has been in full swing for the last over two weeks as September 30 is the deadline fixed by the Supreme Court and the Medical Council of India (MCI) to complete the admission process.

However, in view of the Supreme Court order dated September 23, in a contempt petition against independent counselling by a medical college in Madhya Pradesh, the counselling process in Punjab has been stopped for now.

In Punjab too, three medical colleges — Adesh Medical College, Bathinda; CMC, Ludhiana; and Sri Guru Ram Das Medical College (SGRDMC), Amritsar; have been conducting independent counselling.

”We have stopped counselling in all medical and dental colleges in the state for the time being. We have sent the file to the office of Advocate General, Punjab, for legal opinion in view of the Supreme Court order and its implication on Punjab,” said Manjit Kaur Mohi, Director, DMER.

As per the directions of the Supreme Court and the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, a centralised counselling is to be done by the state government. While the counselling to fill MBBS seats in seven medical colleges in Punjab is being conducted by Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS), a state government body, but the CMC, the SGRDMC and Adesh Medical college conducted their own independent counselling.