The State Government has set the ball rolling to hand over the Government Medical Colleges of Srinagar and Almora to the Army Medical Corps (AMC). On the proposal submitted by the State Government requesting the AMC to take over the functioning of these two medical colleges, a team of top officials of AMC would visit the state soon. The medical education Director, Dr Ashutosh Sayana told The Pioneer that the team of AMC is expected to visit these medical colleges any time between May 10 to 15. On the report submitted by this team, the army would consider the proposal of State Government.
The proposal of state government was submitted by Dr Sayana recently in lukhnow where he met the General Officer Commanding (GOC) in chief of Central Command of AMC, Major General D S Bhakuni. It is learnt that the state government has offered AMC that in lieu of handing the operation of these medical colleges it can reserve some seats for the children of armed forces personnel.
The Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, Trivendra Singh Rawat while addressing a gathering on the occasion of birth anniversary of the Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna in Bughani near Srinagar had declared about the intension of his government to hand over these medical colleges to Army. He said that he had talked with Army Chief General Bipin Rawat on issue.
The decision to hand over the operation of these medical colleges is important as the State Government has failed in its efforts to bring in required number of faculty members in the Sri Nagar medical college while paucity of funds has affected the pace of construction of Almora Medical College. The Srinagar medical college was given permission to start MBBS classes in the year 2008. The college at present has a sanctioned capacity of 100 MBBS seats and 04 Post Graduate seats. The college had as many as nine Principals in last nine years while 80 percent posts of residents and 28 percent faculty positions are vacant. In the proposed Almora medical college the fund crunch has affected the construction works. Only 35 percent work of the medical college is complete yet although the work in going on from last four years. The State Government believes that by handing over these colleges to army the doctors and faculty position would be available there. The large population of ex servicemen would also get benefit from the arrangement.