Karnataka faces major Setback: NMC says NO to 3 new Medical Colleges, 800 additional MBBS seats
Medical Seats in Karnataka
Bengaluru: The National Medical Commission (NMC) has rejected the State Government's proposal to start three new medical colleges and increase the MBBS seats by 800 in government medical colleges across Karnataka.
With the Apex Medical Commission denying enhancement of the MBBS seats, citing lack of necessary infrastructure and faculty recruitment, for the current academic year, altogether 9,263 MBBS seats (including Management and NRI quota) are reportedly available for this year, as per the final seat matrix received by the Medical Education Department.
Last year, a total of 9,282 MBBS seats were allotted to the State, Deccan Herald has reported.
Also Read: Mismatch between MBBS, PG Medical Seats- a Recurring Challenge: NMC Chairman
NMC Denies Permission for New Medical College, Increase of Seats:
As per the latest media report by The Hindu, the Medical Education Department had submitted a proposal to set up three new medical colleges, including two government colleges and one private college- Ramanagara Institute of Medical Sciences in Ramanagara, Kanakapura Institute of Medical Sciences in Kanakapura, and Farooq Academy of Medical Sciences in Mysuru — this year.
However, NMC has rejected this proposal. Confirming this, the Director of the Directorate of Medical Education, B.L. Sujatha Rathod, told the Daily, "We were hoping to get permission to start three new medical colleges and enhance medical seats in government medical colleges this year, but the NMC has rejected permission for both."
The Karnataka Government has been submitting proposals to start government medical colleges in Ramanagara and Kanakapura for the last three years. However, even in 2023-2024 and 2024-2025, NMC had denied granting permission to start these colleges, citing the same reasons.
Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar has been championing the medical colleges in Ramanagara and Kanakapura. He held multiple meetings with Medical Education Minister Sharan Prakash Patil. Mr. Shivakumar instructed to make the necessary preparations for starting the new medical colleges. However, this year too, the State submitted a request to start the colleges without appointing the required teaching staff.
Sources from the department informed Deccan Herald, NMC has not permitted fresh admissions at Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, Belagavi, a Deemed-to-be-institution, and the few seats filled at that college will not be available this year.
"The number of seats shared by that particular institute were not more than 15," said the source.
As per the recommendations of Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS), the number of seats at medical colleges was supposed to go up by 1,500. "NMC has not considered the enhancement of seats recommended by the university following the shortage of teaching staff at the medical colleges in the state," said the official.
Based on the report submitted by the local inspection committees, RGUHS had recommended an increase in intake at eight private and 16 government medical colleges in the State. Along with that, the University had also given approval for one private medical college in Hunsur and two new government colleges at Ramanagara and Kanakapura, for which the Apex Medical Commission did not grant its approval.
Experts had criticised RGUHS's decision to recommend such a huge number of seats for the first time, despite the deficiencies.
Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that back in May 2025, CBI unveiled a bribery racket, where a Senior doctor working as an Assessor with NMC reportedly received bribes in exchange for granting a positive assessment report to a private medical college in Karnataka. The CBI booked some assessors, college authorities, and unknown persons in this connection.
In response to the incident, NMC decided to blacklist the said assessor, halt renewing the existing number of UG and PG seats of the said college and put a stop to processing the applications for an increase in seats and starting new courses for both UG and PG received by the Medical Assessment and Rating Board for this academic year.
