The government may be offering truce by talking of increasing seats in order to appease the protesting students.
Medical community terms govt's offer an eyewash.
NEW DELHI: The government may be offering truce by talking of increasing seats in order to appease the protesting students. However, it is not possible to immediately increase intake in the medical colleges.
Increasing of seats is a long drawn and complicated process which takes about a year to happen. According to Medical Council of India (MCI) guidelines, the institutions seeking increase in number of seats in the MBBS/Post-graduate Diploma/Degree/Higher Speciality courses have to first apply to the Central Government for permission under sector 10A of Indian Medical Council Act. The institutions also need to provide evidence to show the additional financial allocation, additional space and equipment and other infrastructural facilities along with provision for recruitment of additional staff.
After the permission from the Central Government, a team of MCI inspects the institution to check whether it has feasible and time-bound programme to provide additional equipment and infrastructural facilities like staff, space, funds, equipment and teaching faculty, beds etc for the increased numbers.
At present there are about 8,000 seats for MBBS and 6,500 in the post-graduate medical courses. The new reservation policy would mean seats cutting down to roughly 3000 for the general category at PG level and about 4000 for MBBS. In order to maintain the balance, the government would need to increase about 50 per cent more seats in medical colleges.
The students have reacted strongly on the offer to increase number of seats calling it an absolute eye-wash. "We have six microscopes in the hematology department and we are twelve residents. Already we are dividing time by half. If you increase the number of seats, you will also need a huge investment in infrastructure. That will take another few years, so it makes no sense, as reservations will be valid soon," said Rahul Naithali from AIIMS.
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