Wait for Mohali medical college gets longer

Sanjay Bumbroo

Tribune News Service

Mohali, October 24

In a big blow to MBBS aspirants of Punjab, the state government has failed to start the Government Medical College in Mohali this year also. The college, named after Dr BR Ambedkar, couldn’t get the Letter of Permission (LOP) from the National Medical Commission (NMC), evidently, owing to the non-fulfilment of the conditions.

The college was announced in 2012. The state has been able to start three government medical colleges — the GMC, Patiala; the GMC, Amritsar; and the GGS, Faridkot. No new government medical college has been set up in the state since 1973 when the Faridkot college came into existence.

The government has not been able to fulfil the faculty requirements. Besides, the college is said to have been bereft of proper infrastructure.

Dr Manjit Kaur Mohi, Director Principal, BR Ambedkar State Institute of Medical Sciences, said 29 faculty members had been recruited for the college, including faculty on deputation. She said: “We have started the recruitment process and 29 faculty members have already joined. The process will continue until we get the faculty required.”

As per the NMC, the minimum faculty required to run a medical college of 100 MBBS seats is 62.

Sources said the process to start the college was launched at the eleventh hour, and the reason thereof was obviously lack of political will.

A senior officer of the Medical Education Department said: “The college doesn’t have its own building. On the one hand new medical colleges are being announced, but on the other, the government is not able to start a medical college that was announced six years ago.”

Confirming the development, DK Tiwari, Principal Secretary, Medical Education, said the college would not offer MBBS seats in NEET counselling for the session 2020-21 because they had not got LOP. He said: “We will try to get permission for the next year. I am hopeful that we will be able to start the college next year.”

This year, the state will have 1,135 MBBS seats, including 510 government quota seats, said DK Tiwari.

Meanwhile, Health and Family Welfare Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu, who laid the foundation stone of a community health centre in Sector 60, said the Mohali medical college project was started by him in 2013 with the help of the then Rajya Sabha MP Ambika Soni. As soon as he became the Health Minister, he started working on the project.

He thanked the villages for donating 20 acres for the college to which

the government added another 14 acres. A 500-bed hospital is also to be set up at a cost of Rs 375 crore, he added.

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