This is the Golden Jubilee year of Government Medical College. Much has been written about the history of this college and the contribution of many noted doctors who were the products of this GMC, Srinagar.

I completed my medical graduation at Osmania Medical College, Hyderabad where after I was posted as house surgeon in SMHS hospital. In that capacity I had the opportunity of working with Dr Naseer Sahib, Dr Jan Sahib, Dr Ghulam Rasool Sahib and Dr Harbhajan Singh ji for almost two years. As I remember, we had only two Medical, two Surgical, one OBG, One ENT, One Ophthalmology and one Pediatric Unit in the SMHS hospital at that time. Even before my joining as house surgeon, Bakshi Ghulam Muhammad, the then Prime Minister of the state had initiated the process of opening government medical college at Srinagar, to make the state self-sufficient in qualified medical manpower. Hectic activities were going on in the medical circles of the state. The government had acquired the services of an expert advisor and issued national level advertisements for senior posts in the would be medical college. A special feature of the advertisement was that it invited recently retired professors and heads of departments to apply. This elicited a good response from all over the country, and some of the highly acclaimed professors and principals opted for the medical college. Selections were made in recognition of the professional reputation of the applicants. The first batch of teachers who joined the GMC included celebrities like Prof A. A. Ayer (Anatomy), Prof B.S. Kahali (Physiology), Prof R.K. Goyal (Pathology), Prof S.C. Tyagi (Pathology), Prof M.L. Gujral (Pharmacology) and Prof B.R. Anand (Microbiology). In their presence the GMC Srinagar rose in national estimate, and became one of the leading medical colleges of the country. A spacious building for the new medical college which was already under construction within the premises of the SMHS hospital was nearing completion. The teaching programme had actually been initiated in 1959 in an old hospital building at Lal Mandi. This building was later expanded as Lal Ded hospital. Lt. Colonel S.L. Gargye served as the first principal of the college. Colonel GVS Murthy took over as the principal of the college from December 1959. The first batch of medical students who had completed their MBBS part-I course in 1961 had to enter SMHS hospital for training in bedside clinical medicine. And SMHS hospital had to be transformed into a full-fledged teaching hospital in keeping with the recommendations of the medical council of India. The specialists in the SMHS hospital who had no teaching experience decided not to respond to the advertisement. However, in consideration of their meritorious services, the government adjusted them as Associate Professors. They were eventually promoted as Professors on their completion of minimum teaching experience requirement.  Simultaneously when the teaching staff moved to the new college building, applications were invited from house surgeons / assistant surgeons to fill the posts of demonstrators in various departments of the college. I decided to move to the field rather than serve as a demonstrator. Since the teaching faculty included some of the known postgraduate teachers, MD programme was initiated in several departments right from the inception of the college; the demonstrators who had recently joined were enrolled for MD programme. Some of my colleagues who qualified for MD in an in-service capacity were Dr M.L. Koul, Dr A.N.

Safaya, Dr G.M. Shah, Dr M. Sayeed, Dr Fazal Mujtaba, Dr J.D. Sharma and Dr A.H. Fazili. They eventually served as heads of departments in their respective disciplines.

While serving in the field in the capacity of a medical officer, I kept my interest alive with the developments of the upcoming medical college, especially with the department of social and preventive medicine, which lagged behind in academic field. Prof C.L. Ahluwalia who was my teacher at the Osmania medical college had joined as head of the department. As I knew him, Dr Ahluwalia was a teacher by accident, a product of circumstances. The erstwhile Hyderabad state had separate directorates of health services and medical services. And later when the two directorates were merged under central directive, Dr Ahluwalia who was serving as director of health services was relieved of his post and adjusted as professor of social and preventive medicine in Osmania medical college.

This position had fallen vacant upon the retirement of Dr Naidu who later served our state as director health services. Dr Ahluwalia was a thorough gentleman possessing admirable qualities of head and heart. Using his immense organizational capabilities, he succeeded in establishing an exemplary infrastructure for the department of social and preventive medicine, including a state of the art health museum which became a source of attraction for dignitaries who visited the college. Dr Ahluwalia was instrumental in acquiring two health centers from the state health department, for that was a mandatory under the directives of Medical Council of India.

He concentrated on establishing PHC Hazratbal as urban health training center and PHC Ganderbal as rural health training center for medical students and interns.

There is a huge stock of memories associated with this college. One can't do justice to the subject in one go.

(Prof. G. M. Dhaar is Former, Prof. & Chair, Department of SPM / Community Medicine, GMC Srinagar / SKIMS Srinagar)

Lastupdate on : Wed, 21 Jul 2010 21:30:00 Mecca time
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