TRANSFER of 150 MBBS Students: State writes to Centre, MCI; informs Court

Chennai: As many as 150 MBBS students of Ponnaiyah Ramajayam Institute of Medical Sciences (PRIMS) are going to get shifted to other medical colleges by the state government soon. This step has been taken by the state after noting the lack of facilities for clinical practice and lab studies at the newly founded medical institute.

Informing the Madras High Court about the same, the state government stated that on 3^rd October, the Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan has written a letter to the Union Health and Family Welfare Secretary Preeti Sudan seeking its concurrence for shifting 150 second year MBBS students of PRIMS to the other self-financing private colleges.

For the purpose of reallocation of MBBS students, the communication requested for providing necessary permission by the Centre as well as the Medical Council of India (MCI).

During the apprising session, the court was informed about the all the records of the college as mentioned below:

• The State government had issued Essentiality Certificate to PRIMS on August 28, 2014, with an annual intake of 150 MBBS students from the academic year 2015-16 only if the medical college complied with the certain conditions directed by the government.


• However, the MCI recommended the Centre not to issue Letter of Permission (LoP) to the institution to conduct MBBS course; due to some organizational, departmental and academic defects such as shortage of outpatients, low bed occupancy, non-availability of the blood bank and so on.


• Following the MCI's notice, the Centre gave another opportunity to PRIMS to rectify its said defects. Later, on August 11, 2016, an Oversight Committee appointed by the Supreme Court recommended MBBS admission of students from the year 2016-17.


• Based on the recommendation, the Centre issued a LoP to the college on August 20, 2016, and it admitted 150 MBBS students. However, after all the admission process, the MBBS students came forward complaining about lack of infrastructure to the government and also filed cases before the High Court which insisted on shifting the students to other colleges.

Medical dialogues had earlier reported about the MBBS students, who moved HC seeking the transfer from PRIMS. According to these students, who were admitted in the first year MBBS course during 2016-17 under the government and management quota after passing the NEET, the medical college was started from the 2016-17 academic year after obtaining approval from the state and central governments and the Medical Council of India (MCI).

It was mentioned before the court that the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare debarred the college from making MBBS admissions for 2017-18 and 2018-19 as it had failed to rectify the 'deficiencies' pointed out by the MCI.

The MBBS students contended that the medical college is going through a financial crisis and has been unable to pay a salary to the teaching and non-teaching staff for the past six months. This had led to an exodus of medical faculty and other employees.

Read Also: 103 First year MBBS students of defunct private medical college move HC seeking Transfer

As the government had shifted about 144 students of Annai Medical College and Hospital to various government colleges last year only, following directions issued by the High Court, this time the state government decided to shift the PRIMS MBBS students to other private colleges running in the state.

After recording the contents of the letter, the judge directed the state government to apprise the Centre as well as MCI of the vacant seats available in different private colleges and how the 150 MBBS students could be accommodated over there, reports The Hindu.

The hearing on a batch of cases filed by the MBBS students has been adjourned to October 12.