Non-Payment of NMC Fines: Bengal GMCs might lose MBBS Seats

Kolkata: The medical colleges in West Bengal might face a cut-back in MBBS seats as they failed to pay the fines imposed on them by the National Medical Commission, the Apex Medical Education Regulatory Body in India.

As per a media report by The Statesman, the Commission has threatened to reduce the number of MBBS seats in the government medical colleges in Bengal in 2025 for non-payment of the fines.

NMC imposed fines on these medical colleges around two months ago for not following the mandatory Aadhaar-enabled biometric attendance system (AEBAS). 

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that NMC back in 2022 had directed all the medical colleges across the country to install biometric attendance machines for regularly capturing the attendance of human resources as specified in the regulations. In the UG-MSR 2023 also, NMC had specified that all medical colleges shall install an Aadhaar-Enabled Biometric Attendance System (AEBAS) to be linked to Command and Control center of NMC and the daily AEBAS of the required staff (faculty, residents and supporting staff), preferably along with face linked recognition, shall be made available to NMC as well as on the Medical College Website in the form of daily attendance dashboard. The Commission had also issued directions for installing CCTV cameras in the medical colleges.

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The Statesman has reported that the regulatory body had observed the medical colleges in West Bengal were not following the AEBAS system, as directed. Further, the Commission found that many teaching hospitals in the State were not regularly uploading the total number of surgeries performed by the doctors in their respective medical teaching institutes.

Aggrieved by this, NMC took action against such State-run institutes. It had imposed a fine of Rs 24 Lakh on NRS Medical College, Rs 20 lakh on Medical College Hospital, Rs 18 lakh on SSKM Hospital, and Rs 12 lakh on Sagar Dutta General Hospital and College of Medicine.

However, none of these colleges neither paid the fine nor did they make any appeal to the Commission requesting it to waive the monetary penalty. The Statesman has reported that for violating its directions, NMC has now threatened to reduce the number of MBBS seats in the government medical colleges in West Bengal in 2025.

NMC introduced the provisions of monetary penalty in the Maintenance of Standards of Medical Education Regulations, 2023 or MSMER 2023. The Commission had mentioned that it may impose several forms of penalty such as issue warning to the medical college to rectify or comply, impose monetary penalty up to Rs 1 crore, impose penalty up to Rs 5 lakhs to the faculties of the medical college for misconduct. It may also withhold the accreditation process, recommend to the Medical Assessment and Rating Board (MARB) of NMC to withhold the application process for any new course including increase of seats in the existing course, reduce the number of students in the next or subsequent academic years, stop admission to one or more courses, recommend for withdrawal of permission, withhold or withdraw accreditation for up to five academic years.

Earlier this year, for the first time, taking note of deficiencies in faculty and clinical material, NMC imposed fines on medical colleges for violating the Maintenance of Standards of Medical Education Regulations, 2023 (MSMER) rules. The Commission slapped a fine of up to Rs 3 lakh on government medical colleges in Tamil Nadu, including the colleges in Dharmapuri, Ramanathapuram, and Nagapattinam. Apart from these colleges, the Commission also issued show-cause notices to many other colleges for deficiencies in Aadhaar-based biometric attendance.

Recently, taking cognisance of a critical faculty shortage and lack of essential resources, the Commission took strict action against the government medical colleges in Chhattiagarh. NMC slapped a penalty of Rs 1 crore on Kanker Medical College, Rs 4 lakh fine on Durg Medical College, and Rs 3 lakh fine each in the medical colleges located at Bilaspur, Ambikapur, Mahasamund, and Jagdalpur. Along with this, Mahasamund, Kanker, and Raigarh medical colleges have also been served with show-cause notices over the shortage of faculty.

Also Read: First time: NMC slaps fine on 3 TN medical colleges for Faculty, Clinical Material Deficiencies