MCI nod for 44 PG seats for two medical colleges

Samaan Lateef

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, March 6

In a major relief to doctors aspiring to get admission to various postgraduate courses in J&K, the Medical Council of India (MCI) today approved 44 new seats for two medicals colleges of the state.

As per official documents, the MCI has recommended an increase of 29 postgraduate seats in Government Medical College (GMC), Srinagar, and 15 in GMC, Jammu.

“The MCI has recommended an increase in seats in PG (broad specialty) courses for the year 2018-19 in clinical subjects of government medical colleges/postgraduate institutes across the country in the light of amendment in the teacher-student ratio,” reads a MCI public notice.

The increase in the postgraduate seats in the GMC, Srinagar, has, however, come after several months of hard work by its Principal, Prof Samia Rashid. She had personally visited the MCI office along with hundreds of documents to make a strong case for an increase in the PG seats.

“We have for the first time seen that a principal of our medical college has been so serious about academics. She didn’t give up on the demand for an increase in the PG seats despite being rebuked by MCI officials,” said a professor at the GMC, Srinagar.

Prof Samia had stayed in New Delhi for several days to ensure that the application for an increase in PG seats was submitted on time on January 16, said a GMC official.

“It was a tough time and the MCI officials were not cooperating. But she did not give up,” said the official. The Orthopaedic Department of the GMC, Srinagar, has got 11 seats, the highest among all branches, followed by ophthalmology, which has got five seats, and psychiatry, which has got three seats. The paediatrics, radiodiagnosis and ENT departments have got two seats each while the medicine department has got one seat.

The MCI had earlier rejected the proposal of the GMC, Jammu, for an increase in PG seats.

However, after a last-minute intervention by BJP ministers, the MCI approved 15 seats for the Jammu medical college.

The GMC, Jammu, has got five seats in anaesthesiology followed by four in ENT and two in dermatology. The surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology and ophthalmology have got one seat each.

The recommendation of the MCI is subject to submission of an undertaking by the Commissioner Secretary, Health, by March 9, stating that both medical colleges will fulfil the minimum required facilities such as infrastructure and faculty at the time of assessment, failing which, the MCI may withdraw the permission.

Officials of the Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences have failed to convince the MCI for an increase in postgraduate seats.

The total number of postgraduate seats in the SKIMS is 124, while the GMC, Srinagar, and GMC, Jammu, will have now 177 and 173 seats, respectively.