In the past two months, as many as 40 medical colleges across the country have lost recognition allegedly for not following standards set by the National Medical Commission (NMC). According to a report by the ANI news agency, about 100 more medical colleges may face similar actions. The agency citing sources said the colleges that may lose recognition are located in Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Assam, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Puducherry, and West Bengal.
Several colleges in the country were not found to be complying with the set norms, the agency wrote.
NMC found lapses related to Aadhaar-linked biometric attendance procedures, CCTV cameras, and faculty rolls during the inspection.
According to the government data, medical colleges in the country are prolific. Minister of State for Health Bharati Pravin Pawar in Rajya Sabha said that there is an increase of 69% in the medical colleges from 387 before 2014 to 654 as of now.
Further, there’s also a surge in MBBS seats- from 51,348 before 2014 to 99,763.
Their MBBS seats have increased by a whopping 94% in the past decade. Further an increase of 107% in PG seats from 31,185 before 2014 to 64,559 as of now.
The MoS Health said in Parliament that the government opened more colleges and increased medical seats in a bid to tackle the issue of the shortage of doctors in the country, thus improving the medical system.
As per the Centre’s initiatives to increase the medical seats schemes were launched for the establishment of new medical colleges by upgrading district/ referral hospitals, under which 94 new medical colleges are already functional out of the 157 approved.
