Maharashtra: Medical College Students CRY out Ghost Faculty

Mumbai:In response to the sudden fee hike in BKL Walawalkar Rural Medical College at Chiplun, the students have written to the Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER) and the fee regulatory Authority(FRA) that the college has submitted a list with bogus names of teachers.

The college’s fee hike proposal to the FRA carried 250 teachers on its rolls to justify their hiked salary bill and overall expenditure.

However, Medical Council of india guidelines the college requirement only calls for 132 full time faculty.

Under the guidelines of the Medical Council of India (MCI), the college ought to merely have 132 full-time faculty . "Students have found that there are merely 41 teachers in the college," said Dr Vivek Korade, President, Forum Against Commercialization of Education. "Some faculty is practicing in Goa, someone else is in Nashik," he added.

DMER Head, Dr Praveen Shingare said that if the students and activists came up with evidence to back their statements, his office would initiate an inquiry into the matter.

A college in Southern India faced 38 de -egistrations at the hands of the Council due to faculty not being full time with the college recently.
"We students were shocked at the fee hike of this two-year-old medical college. But now we understand how they have hiked their expenses," said students.

Speaking about the fee hike the students said that the rise in fee had reached Rs. 7.25 lakh from last year’s Rs.3.90 lakh .Earlier, college authorities had claimed to the parents that the hike would be a mere 5% or 10%, however, it is an exorbitant 86% t

College authorities stated it to be a "difference of fees and not a hike" as the college had been as astonishing low as compared to other colleges.

BKL Walawalkar Rural Medical College is the sole medical institute in Chiplun and the entire Konkan district.

This 2 year old college happens to be the choice of parents and students because of its low fees. However, the present fee issue has parents and students in a quandary exams are round the corner reports TOI.