Source: hindustantimes.com
The Medical Council of India (MCI) has denied permission to three newly set up medical colleges in Jharkhand, at Palamu, Hazaribagh and Dumka, to start academic sessions from 2019, citing faculty deficiency.
The state government had sought permission to start classes for 50 MBBS seats in each of the three medical colleges from the current session.
In the list released by the MCI for availability of MBBS seats in medical colleges across country, names of these three from Jharkhand are missing.
At present, the three medical colleges have only caretaker principals in the name of college administrator as well as faculty member.
While state’s health secretary Nitin Madan Kulkarni was available for comment, Dr Arun Kumar, superintendent of MGMMCH, who is the acting principal of Hazaribagh Medical College, said the permission was not granted for 2019 session due to 100% faculty deficiency.
“The college has all the infrastructure to begin operations, but no teachers. Appointment of faculty members is under progress,” he said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had inaugurated buildings of these three colleges constructed at a cost of Rs 885 crore on February 17 from Hazaribagh and the state government had promised that all three institutions would begin functioning from this July. The then union minister Jayant Sinha and chief minister Raghubar Das were also present on the occasion. The Prime Minister had also laid foundation of four 500-bed hospitals at Palamu, Dumka, Jamshedpur and Hazaribagh.
But even after four months of inauguration by Prime Minister, the state government has failed to appoint even a single teacher in all three medical colleges.
A senior official of state health department said that due to imposition of model code of conduct for parliamentary elections, the government’s hands were tied for three months from March to May, due to which appointment of faculty members in these medical colleges could not be done.
“By the time model code was lifted, the MCI deadline had ended,” the official said, requesting anonymity as the health secretary is himself dealing with the MCI on the issue.
The official said reluctance of doctors to join medical colleges of state had emerged as major hurdle in appointing teachers. On June 3, government had organised walk-in interviews for senior residents at Ranchi, but only 30% candidates turned up.