Telengana on the look out for a PG medical seat increase

Hyderabad: The Centre’s relaxation policy is likely to raise the number of postgraduate seats in Telangana with the number being raised from the present 250 to 300. An expected increase of 50 seats is likely according to the Director of Medical Education, K. Ramesh Reddy who said a proposal for seat enhancement for the same in different departments had been sent to the Medical Council of India.

According to Vice-Chancellor, B. Karunakar Reddy, if the Council seat sanctions came in time for counselling of next batch for admissions in April, the Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences would take on the task.

The PG medical seat sanction is dependent on the number of faculty positions in teaching hospitals; three seats are allotted for every professor or additional professor and one seat for an associate professor. Hindu reports that the Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) in September, last year, promoted 35 assistant professors to associate professors and 10 associate professors to additional professors. NIMS has also applied for a seat increase this year. It had asked for 44 more seats last year.

A total of 1,475 PG seats in government and private medical colleges have been put up by the state. This also includes NIMS, a deemed university offering specialized courses Of the 700 seats in private sector, the government quota was 50%. In government colleges, allocation of seats can only be possible Osmania, Gandhi, and Kakatiya colleges. As the ones in Siddipet, Nizamabad, Mahbubnagar, and Adilabad are not in readiness to launch these courses; with their first institutional batches of MBBS students yet to graduate.

A 150 seat sanction by the Medical Council has been asked for by the state government for the Siddipet Government College.

The State government has also requested the MCI to sanction 150 MBBS seats for the government college at Siddipet. An MCI team inspected the college buildings recently, pointing at deficiencies, which the government claims that compliance has been met with. Proposals for sanction of medical colleges at Nalgonda and Suryapet have also been submitted by the government, requesting a 150 seat intake each for the two colleges reports the Hindu.