The Himachal Pradesh High Court on Thursday admitted a public interest litigation (PIl) challenging the Union Government’s decision on declining permission to the newly-set up ESI Medical College, Mandi for starting MBBS course from the 2014-15 session.
Notices have been issued to Union Government’s Health and labour Ministry, Medical Council of India (MCI), Employee State Insurance Corp (ESI), ESI Medical College, Mandi and others in a petition moved by Tejinder Gupta, a resident of Nehar Chowk, Mandi.
Giving details, Ajay Vaidya, the lawyer who has moved the PIl on behalf of the petitioner said, “a case of adopting a discriminatory approach for granting conditional permissions for starting MBBS courses in new medical colleges for 2014-15 by the Union Government and MCI has been made out.”
“Where 11 other new medical colleges, otherwise found deficient by MCI in infrastructure and staffing requirements, have been granted conditional permission to start a MBBS batch from the 2014-15 session, the same benefit has not been extended to ESI Medical College, Mandi where much of the infrastructure has already been set up”, says Vaidya.
Having been under construction for three years, ESI Medical College, Mandi with an intake of 100 MBBS seats was slated to start functioning from 2014-15.
Set up by Employee State Insurance Corp, a public sector undertaking under labour Ministry of the Union Government, about Rs700 crore are said to have already been spent on buildings and equipment to set up the new medical institution.
The college is said to have also recruitment much of the staff required for starting the first year bachelors degree course in medicine and surgery.