1500 MBBS Seats To be Added in Karnataka
Bengaluru: Karnataka is likely to have 1500 more MBBS seats now that the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS) has cleared the recommendations made by the Local Inspection Committee (LIC) for increasing the quantum of seats at eight private and 16 state-run medical colleges across the State.
After its recent meeting, the RGUHS syndicate has cleared the recommendations given by the Local Committee to increase the number of MBBS seats at eight private and 16 state-run medical colleges across the State.
Deccan Herald has reported that the University has proposed to add 1600 MBBS seats at the existing medical colleges. Apart from this, RGUHS has also approved a new private medical college in Hunsur in Mysuru.
Besides these 1600 seats, another 250 seats may be added to the seat matrix of Karnataka if the new government medical colleges proposed at Ramanagara and Kanakapura start functioning from the academic year 2025-2026.
However, stakeholders have criticised the RGUHS's approval for increasing enrolment at the medical colleges since some of the colleges that have now been allowed to increase the intake capacity were penalised by the National Medical Commission (NMC) for lack of infrastructure, and adequate faculty strength.
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Commenting on the matter an RGUHS official told Deccan Herald, "The increase in student intake for state-run colleges has been recommended following an undertaking by the Karnataka government to address all the lacunae highlighted by the RGUHS committees."
However, a former RGUHS Vice-Chancellor highlighted that the addition of such a huge number of seats had not been approved until now. The former VC said, "I hope the NMC re-examines all the facilities at the colleges before giving its final nod."
Meanwhile, a former member of the RGUHS syndicate highlighted that some of the colleges that prayed for permission from RGUHS to increase enrolment lacked adequate faculty strength for existing students. Referring to this, the former syndicate member said, "How can the university recommend increasing the intake by 100? We suspect something amiss, and urge the NMC to be vigilant."
It has been decided by some of the former members of the syndicate to highlight this issue before the Karnataka Governor. Writing to the Karnataka Governer, they requested the Governor, the syndicate members will urge the Governor to look into the issue.
Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that recently the Union Minister of State for Health Smt. Anupriya Patel provided the data regarding the number of available medical seats across the medical colleges. As per the data provided by the Ministry, Karnataka has the maximum number (12545) of MBBS seats.
