MCI tells state to implement EWS quota in med colleges

FARIDKOT: For the implementation of 10 per cent reservation for Economically Weaker Section (EWS) candidates in MBBS and MD/MS courses in eight medical colleges of the state, the Medical Council of India’s Board of Governor (MCI BoG) has asked the Director of Medical Education and Research (DMER) and secretary, medical education, Punjab, to enhance the existing number of seats so that EWS reservation does not affect other candidates.

Balwant Garg

Tribune News Service

Faridkot, April 26

For the implementation of 10 per cent reservation for Economically Weaker Section (EWS) candidates in MBBS and MD/MS courses in eight medical colleges of the state, the Medical Council of India’s Board of Governor (MCI BoG) has asked the Director of Medical Education and Research (DMER) and secretary, medical education, Punjab, to enhance the existing number of seats so that EWS reservation does not affect other candidates.

While this 10 per cent reservation on MBBS seats will be implemented from the current academic session (2019-2020), the reservation in post-graduate medical courses (MD/MS) will be implemented from the next academic session (2020-2021).

While the admission process for 566 post-graduate medical courses (MD/MS) is already underway, the entrance test for MBBS (NEET-UG-2019) is scheduled for May 5. The admission for MBBS will start in the first week of June.

Medical colleges in Punjab offer about 1,000 MBBS seats in eight medical colleges, including three government and five private colleges.

The MCI BoG has asked the DMER to send a proposal to increase 10 per cent seats in the medical colleges and ensure that the colleges have additional facilities for increasing the seats, as per the minimum standard requirements.

The medical colleges have to submit their proposal of increased seats to the MCI BoG before May 15.

With a new category of EWS and increased intake of total seats from this academic session, the colleges will face a lot of difficulty as the rules prescribe that increased infrastructure needs to be strictly in faculty-to-student ratio, a senior functionary in the medical education department said.

If a medical college wants to admit more students, it needs to apply to the MCI and the approval is granted after a detailed inspection by the MCI. This practice needs a minimum one year, so making admission on the proposed increased seats in June 2019 seems to be a difficult task to accomplish, sources said.