Nod to 34 new private medical colleges

New Delhi: The Supreme Court-appointed Oversight Committee (OC) on Medical Council of India (MCI) has approved the establishment of 34 new private medical colleges for the current session with certain conditions, the Rajya Sabha was told on Friday.

Significantly, the committee also approved seven colleges each for private and government, for increasing seats or starting super-speciality courses, minister of state for health Faggan Singh Kulaste said in a written reply.

“The government issued necessary permission/ notification as approved by the OC,” he said. He was asked whether the OC headed by Justice (retd.) R.M. Lodha had given clearances to many private medical colleges, which were put on abeyance by the Medical Council of India inspectors that found glaring deficiencies. “The SC-mandated OC on the MCI approved following schemes or proposals of the applicant medical colleges for 2016-17 with certain conditions. The establishment of New Medical Colleges — 34 private, 0 government; increase of intake capacity — 7 private colleges, one government; renewal of permission — 30 private and O for government,” the minister added. In August, the panel had slammed the medical education regulator, saying it “disregarded” its directives by not conducting fresh inspection of medical colleges.

The OC said it resolved in its meeting held on June 13 that all applicant medical colleges, which were not given an opportunity to present their compliance to deficiencies communicated by the Medical Council of India, be given an opportunity to do so by June 22.