Rajasthan: Govt seeks hearing with the Ministry over MCI non-approvals

Jaipur: The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare will soon be approached by the state government for a hearing after the Medical Council of India’s denial to grant permission for setting up of six government medical colleges after an inspection in December last year.

The Health Minister, Kalicharan Saraf informed the TOI, "We will work hard and remove all the flaws pointed out by MCI. After that we will invite the MCI team again for inspection.” He said efforts were being made in the direction of starting the 2017-18 batch by taking all precautionary measures.

The MCI Inspection Committee disapproval had come in the face of no faculty appointments having been made. On receiving the report of the inspectors, The apex body’s Executive Committee decided to advise the government against the establishment of the six government colleges in- Sikar Churu, Pali, , Bhilwara, Dungarpur and Barmer under the IMC Act, 1956, for the current academic year.

A few of the private medical colleges that had been denied permission to continue their MBBS courses by the Medical Council of India are in all likelihood to be granted approval, as they have already had a Ministry hearing, as their cases were already under consideration by it.

."The facts were presented before the ministry of health in February this year stating that no deficiency exists in our medical institute. A few insignificant ones have already been taken care of. I am sure that MCI will grant approval considering the merit of the case," said Sandeep Bakshi, Chancellor of Jaipur National Institute for Medical Sciences and Research Centre (JNIMSRC), a private medical college based in Jaipur that was also denied renewal permission.

The second inspection report of the MCI of JNIMSRC, gave it clearance stating nil deficiencies with regard to the institute’s clinical material and resident doctor appointments. The report also stated that the current infrastructural and faculty shortcomings were within permissible boundaries.

The Pacific Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS)Udaipur is the other private institution in line for the Ministry hearing, as it had earlier been denied approval due to existent shortcomings. Shri Tirupati Balaji Society, Secretary, Rahul Agrawal said, "Our educational society has applied for hearing before the ministry of health. We are yet to get the date for the next inspection. I am hoping to hear from MCI soon."

The six new six government medical colleges will be adding a hundred MBBS seats each to the state and another 150 would come in with the private medical college inclusions.