Telangana: MCI, govt lock horns over 4 medical colleges

Hyderabad: The move of the Telangana State to issue clearance certificates to four medical colleges established in the academic year 2016-17, seems to have not gone well with the Medical Council of India. Expressing surprise over the government decision, MCI is now going to seek clarification from the Principal Secretary of Medical and Health, Telangana in this regard.

MCI has shown thorough disapproval towards these medical colleges. A scrutiny of the clearance certificate issues by the state government shows that out of four, three medical colleges are located in just one district of Medak. Moreover, it has been implied that out of the three medical colleges, two are fake, and that two ministers are behind it reports a local daily. The council on further scrutiny has found the managements of two medical colleges, RVM Charitable Trust (Medak) and Deesara Educational Society (Medak) responsible for violating Medical Colleges Establishment Act of 1999, with their attempts to mislead the council.

None of these colleges seem to have the basic facilities. It is reported that these three colleges do not have any attached hospitals. One of the colleges is declaring a vacant building as hospital whereas there are no beds available in the wards of that building. The other educational institution which declared a building as hospital is still under construction. In the third educational institution, there is only one doctor and there is not a single patient.

As per law, establishment a new medical college the management should have an attached hospital with 300 beds for patients and 80% patients should be under the treatment in the hospital. The application for the establishment of a new medical could only be submitted after running a hospital for three consecutive years.

Since none of these requirements have been met by the said colleges, MCI has thrown a red flag over why these medical colleges have been issued clearance certificates. The council has further opined that the clearance certificates issued to these institutions are not genuine and it has decided to ensure a high level investigation . Hence the letter to the state government from the regulator.