Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Saturday slammed the Medical Council of India (MCI) for “punishing” MBBS aspirants instead of medical colleges for not complying with rules, which, he said, has ended up reducing the number of seats and harming career of many medical aspirants.
The Minister said that the adverse stand taken by the medical council has led to the loss of 1,170 medical seats in the 2014-15 academic year.The Minister was reacting to the recent Supreme Court’s Order quashing the Ministry’s plea for modification of the time schedule for granting approvals to new colleges and renewal of permission to existing seats in old colleges.
“Instead of supporting our plea in court, I am surprised the MCI opposed it. This makes me wonder whose side are they on,” he said critically.Of the 46 colleges affected, 41 are privately owned. “For years it was an open secret that MCI was looking the other way as medical colleges rampantly flouted regulations. Suddenly, this year they have struck. But why are they not punishing the managementsIJ” Vardhan said.He said he has received numerous delegations of students, doctors, institution managements, members of parliament and other stakeholders complaining of MCI’s attitude.
MCI’s “adversarial” position despite his requests, Vardhan said, led to the Supreme Court dismissing the ministry’s plea seeking modification of the time schedule for granting approvals to new colleges and renewal of permission to existing seats in old colleges.MCI took a “bureaucratic” attitude and did not reveal an awareness that it was dealing with young lives, he said, noting that most of the deficiencies in the colleges were minor like problems with air-conditioning or about the thickness of partition walls in buildings.
There was also the issue of the shortage of faculty which is an old irritant, he said, adding that permission was declined in some cases merely because college library did not have sufficient number of journals, a “irrelevant” issue in the age of e-magazines.The best solution would have been to admit students and then pressurising the managements of colleges to take necessary steps, he said. Even though most of the colleges complied with the MCI’s demands, there was no acknowledgement.
“MCI officials took the shocking stand that they did not have time to go through the compliance statements,” he said.Vardhan said he had “personally” requested the MCI president to think of the fate of students instead of “placing a premium on the frivolous deficiencies of the colleges”. “But it had no impact on her,” he added.