Notwithstanding Chief Minister Harish Rawat's insistence of expediting work on the proposed Doon Medical College so that it is ready for the forthcoming visit of team of Medical Council of India (MCI), the preparations are too slow from the side of authorities concerned.
In the month of August this year, then Chief Secretary of State Rakesh Sharma had set a deadline to complete all the pending works by November so that there is no problem in getting recognition from the MCI. Sharma had directed the officials to first complete the process of appointment of Principal and staff. However, the medical education department is yet to start process of recruiting staff. Interestingly the proposed college is still without Principal.
After much deliberation, the department selected the Head of Department of Neurosurgery Meerut Medical College Dr Pradeep Bharati as Principal last month. However, he is yet to join as the UP Govt has not relieved him. It is learnt that the State Government has sent feelers to the UP Government to relieve Dr Bharati at earliest.
The Director of Doon medical College, Dr Ashutosh Syana told The Pioneer that the Principal has been provided a three year bond as per his wish and he is expected to join soon. He said that the State cabinet has approved the proposal to appoint 606 posts in academic and non academic fields for the college and claimed that the process would soon start.
The Uttar Pradesh Nirmal Nigam limited had been entrusted with the task of constructing the medical college which has a total project cost of Rs 383 Crores. However, time is running out for the medical college as the MCI team is expected to visit the hospital in the month of December.
The buildings of administrative and academic blocks located at Dehra Khas are still far from complete while the proposed OPD block near Tehsil Chowk would take at least a year to get completed.
The Doon hospital which planers thought would prove beneficial as it is already having most of the infrastructure needed for the medical college as per the norms of Medical Council of India (MCI) is proving cause of a big worry. Interestingly the medical health department is yet to transfer these district hospitals to the Medical education department due to which hindrance in work for medical college is occurring.
The work in the Doon women hospital for the emergency of associated medical college hospital too is far from complete. It is worth mentioning here that in its last visit the MCI team reprimanded the officials of medical education department on shoddy preparations for the medical college and wasting their precious time.