ESI medical college to start operations today

KOLLAM: Classes for the first year MBBS batch of students at the Parippally ESI Medical College, which recently got approval from the Medical Council of India, will start on Wednesday.  The Rs 500 crore medical college has set up the basic departments for treatment and education. Meanwhile, the issues pertaining to ESI quota still remain unresolved. “The hospital has all the basic departments including departments for medicine, gynaecology, surgery, orthopaedics, respiratory, dental, and transfusion medicine. It also has fulfilled the norms to provide classes for MBBS students. The hospital can accommodate as many as 500 beds for inpatients.

“We have nearly 1,500 outpatients visiting the hospital on a daily basis,” principal Dr Sara Varghese told this newspaper. The Lodha Committee had given nod for starting admissions to 100 MBBS students with the medical college during the academic year 2017-18. The MCI and the Central government had earlier denied permission to give approval for admissions at the medical college which was revoked by the Lodha committee. The committee has given approval based on condition that the state government should submit an undertaking showing that the compliance report given by the government rectifying all issues found by the medical council. The college has a total of 100 seats out of which 15 are all India quota seats, 35 ESIC quota seats, and 50 state quota seats.

Meanwhile, the wards of cashew workers could not avail admission under the ESI quota owing to the norms put forward by the ESI corporation.  ESI norms state that the parent of the student to avail the quota should have a minimum attendance of 78 working days in 10 contribution periods of six months each, from April 1, 2012 to March 31, 2017. Several of the factories run by the Kerala State Cashew Development Corporation not even had a total of 78 working days in six months for the workers to get bare minimum attendance to be eligible for the reservation.