MNR Medical College Students worried over validity of PG degrees, protest outside NMC seeking recognition

Hyderabad: Seeking an official statement stating confirming the validity of the medical seats, around 20 post-graduate medical students of MNR Medical College in Telangana have camped outside the office of the National Medical Commission (NMC) in Delhi.

The PG medicos, whose admission had been cancelled by NMC after a surprise inspection, want the apex medical body to release an official document and confirm that their seats are valid and the students will get a registration number after completion of the course, adds TOI.

Apart from camping at the venue for the last four days, the students have also submitted representations to the Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences, NMC and the state health secretary.

The crisis regarding the medical seats began after the National Medical Commission (NMC) cancelled MBBS and PG medical admission in three private medical colleges in Telangana following a surprise inspection. It resulted in a huge decrease in the total number of seats. In case of MNR Medical College and Hospital, both MBBS and PG admissions had been cancelled. NMC further cancelled PG medical seats in Mahavir Institute of Medical Sciences.

Besides the recognition for MBBS admissions, MNR Medical College lost PG seats in specialist courses like pathology, anatomy, ophthalmology and biochemistry.

Also Read: Telangana HC rejects MNR Medical College medicos plea seeking transfer to other institutes

This came after the Union Health Ministry carried out a surprise inspection on 12 medical colleges in 5 different cities and shut them down after reportedly finding that they were allegedly not confirming to the prescribed minimum standard requirement. Hence, the medicos had to be relocated to other medical institutes.

When the medicos had approached the High Court bench, the Court had directed the authorities of Kaloji Narayan Rao University of health Sciences (KNRUHS) and private medical colleges not to insist on payment of fees from those students who have been accommodated in new collages as a part of relocation until the central government takes its final decision.

However, last year MNR medical college finally secured permission from the concerned authorities to run the college and the transferred students had been ordered to join back their respective colleges. Meanwhile, pointing out the inadequacies of infrastructure of MNR medical college, the medicos approached the High Court and prayed to be allowed to relocate, but the HC bench rejected the plea.

As per the latest media report by the Times of India, even though the court had asked the students to start attending classes, their problems did not end. Explaining the matter, a protesting student told the daily, "The court had also instructed NMC to issue a specific order restoring the recognition for the PG course of 2021-22 (when the seat blocking case had come up), in line with the NMC Act, 2019. Since that has not happened, we are worried that our degrees might not be considered valid once we graduate."

For the last four days, the medicos have been protesting outside the NMC office holding placards that read, 'PG doctors without valid seats since ten months', 'All we ask for is a PG seat as per the NMC Act', 'NMC chairman kindly help us' and 'Save the future of PG doctors'.

While commenting on the matter, another PG medical student added, "The state government and the university has not responded to any of our letters and representations. Now we have missed our thesis submission deadline, and there is no way we can save this year. We want justice."

Also Read: Telangana HC provides relief to reallocated medicos, fees not required until Centre takes final call on cancelled seats