Mohali: Dr BR Ambedkar State Institute of Medical Sciences denied NMC permission for MBBS admissions

Punjab: To the utter disappointment of state medical aspirants, Dr. BR Ambedkar State Institute of Medical Sciences, Mohali has again failed to secure the approval of the National Medical Commission (NMC) to start the admission process from this academic session.

The letter of permission (LOP) was not provided by NMC as it noticed some deficiencies in the infrastructure of the college and also marked unfulfillment of necessary condition which is a prerequisite for starting a medical college.

This is the second consecutive year when the medical institution was denied permission by the authorities. Previously the Medical Dialogue team reported that the MCI inspection was conducted in November last year and in its report, it pointed out many shortcomings including poor infrastructure and equipment, failure to recruit faculty, and the basic requirement to set up a medical college ie. to upgrade the existing civil hospital to 300 beds.

Previously Punjab Medical Education Minister OP Soni also confirmed that the Government Medical College in Mohali was most likely to begin from this academic session as the necessary work for starting the Government Medical College in Mohali is being carried out at a great pace and it may accept students from this year as the building construction has already completed.

Dr. Manjit Kaur Mohi, the director principal of the institute clarified that they have been successful in recruiting only 29 faculty members. She further told The Tribune that "We have started the recruitment process and 29 faculty members have already joined. The process will continue until we get the faculty required." But as per the NMC, the minimum faculty required to run a medical college of 100 MBBS seats is 62. Moreover, One of the Senior Officers of the medical department also added "The college doesn't have its own building. On the one hand, new medical colleges are being announced, but on the other, the government is not able to start a medical college that was announced six years ago."

Minister OP Soni told Hindustan Times that "October 15 was the deadline for getting the permission to start the classes for this session. But the commission had some objections even as we have started hiring teaching and non-teaching staff besides meeting other infrastructure-related requirements. He also added that he will continue making his efforts to start classes from the next academic year.

The project for Mohali Medical College with 220 MBBS was sanctioned under the Centre-State partnership scheme in a 40:60 at an estimated cost of Rs 300 crore in 2012. This is going to be the fourth Medical College after GMC Patiala, GMC Amritsar, and GGS Faridkot and it can significantly improve the healthcare sector along with boosting the number of MBBS seats in the state. However, NMC authorities have found that some requirements remained unfulfilled. All the medical aspirants are earnestly awaiting the approval as the institution has again failed to secure the Central approval to start the admission process.

Medical Dialogues had recently reported about the high court decision of staying the faculty selection process at the institute.