Punjab's medical seat scenario in a state of flux

First Gian Sagar, then Chintpurni, now Adesh Institute of Medical Sciences

Chandigarh: Punjab has suffered a tremendous setback in the field of medical education with Gian Sagar, Banur’s closure and Chintpurni Pathankot’s medical mishap. As if this wasn’t enough, Adesh Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhatinda has recently been debarred from taking student admissions for its 150 MBBS seats, due to infra structural shortcomings. Punjab currently has a total of 975 seats in the state medical colleges . It has lost 100 seats with Gian Sagar Medical College closure and another 300 hung with a debarment imposed on Chintpurni and Adesh Institute of Medical Sciences together.

Dr Harkiran Kaur, Principal, Adesh Institute of Medical Sciences, has however, in an attempt to show things in the positive light for the college claimed, that a compliance report, after removal of deficiencies had already reached the Council office. She was confident that the institute, that has faired well in the past 15 years, with not an year of missed admissions, will be back on track for the next session.

“We are running the college for the past 15 years and never failed to fill seats even for once,” Dr. Kaur told HT.

The Council debarment in Adesh’s case came in the face of staff salary discrepancies and acute hostel accommodation shortage. In the former reason, the chasm between payments of assistant professors, senior and junior residents were wide with junior residents being given a measly Rs 22,000 a month. In the latter, the MCI found only 20 rooms available, as against the required 85 for hostel accomodation.

Medical Education, Secretary, Vikas Partap commenting on the present state of affairs in Punjab said “Private colleges need to pull up their socks and remove deficiencies as per MCI’s prescribed norms in order to maintain the standard of medical education in Punjab."

Punjab’s medical education scene when in robust health had students from Haryana taking back door entry into Punjab colleges, due to the high number of medical seats available in the state. However, the scene is quite the opposite today, with Haryana facing a boon in medical seats, with the opening of new medical colleges, both in private and government sectors.

Punjab is already finding it difficult to compensate for the loss of 250 seats in Gian Sagar and Chintpurni.

The Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh recently announced the state’s intention of starting a new medical college in SAS Nagar, to give a boost to the sagging medical image of the state. However, the project being in the initial stages of launch will take another two or three years to take off.

With 975 seats at hand, the Punjab Medical aspirants numbering at 15,000 face tough competition. The three Government Colleges in the state offer a seat strength of 500 only.

Private names like Dayanand Medical College and Hospital and Christian Medical College are also going to be tough terrain, this session, for aspirants looking for admission.

Present strength of MBBS seats in Punjab:

• Government Medical College, Patiala: 200


• Government Medical College, Amritsar: 200


• Guru Gobind Singh Government Medical College, Faridkot: 100


• Dayanand Medical College and Hospital, Ludhiana: 100


• Christian Medical College, Ludhiana: 75


• Punjab Institute of Medical Sciences, Jalandhar: 150


• Sri Guru Ram Das Institute of Medical Sciences and Research: 150