Medical Council of India may cancel extra seats

Hyderabad: The state government’s negligence in upgrading facilities in government medical colleges and teaching hospitals may cost AP 400 MBBS seats this year.

The Medical Council of India had granted additional seats after the then chief secrtary Minnie Mathew gave a written undertaking in April that all deficiencies will be rectified by December.

The MCI may withdraw the additional seats if there is no improvement of facilities by April. Currently, there are 15 government medical colleges that offer 2,400 MBBS seats.

The intake was increased by 400 last year. Seats were increased in colleges in Kakinada, Guntur, Warangal, Vijayawada, Kurnool, Tirupati, Hyderabad and Nizamabad.

Inspection teams had found problems with the classrooms, laboratories, seminar halls and hostels and discovered a faculty crunch in clinical and non-clinical departments.

However, the MCI granted ‘conditional approval’ following the state government’s assurance that all issues would be addressed within six months.

They, however, remain unresolved even now.

The Centre had last year released a Rs 80 crore grant to the state government to improve facilities in government colleges and hospitals.

However, an inordinate delay in releasing the state government’s matching grant held up the works.

Medical education minister Kondru Murali, however, said, “Work is on to improve facilities. Notifications are being issued to fill vacant posts by March. We will get additional seats this year too.”