Anantnag, Mar 5: With the authorities set to start class work of three MBBS batches of the Government Medical College (GMC), Anantnag from the main campus, the lecture halls and library are yet to be furnished and the hostels are also devoid of any facility.
The college authorities last month decided to take over five blocks that included the Administration Block (Chief Accounts Officer, Procurement and Medical Education), Principal’s Residence, Boys Hostel, and Girls Hostel.
The Administrative Block is now fully functional in the new campus.
However, in absence of furniture, the first two batches are still operating from a makeshift accommodation in the GMC Hospital at JanglatMandi, an erstwhile district hospital building.
“The lecture halls where the students are supposed to take classes do not have seating facility,” the students said.
They said that the library was without chairs, tables, and other facilities.
The college which got the approval of 100 MBBS seats in 2019 from MCI (now National Medical Commission) has three batches, (1st Prof, 2nd Prof, and 1st Prof new batch).
The classes of the new batch are to begin. The students rue that the hostel lacks proper accommodation and was without any facility as a result of which they were still putting up in rented accommodation.
“For around 150 students in the boys’ hostel, there are mere 85 rooms. The first two batches are supposed to be accommodated in single seated rooms and the new batch in the triple seated rooms,” the students said.
They said that the work on triple-sharing rooms was still incomplete.
“Both the boys and girls hostel are yet to get bedding, chairs, and tables,” the students said.
They said that their studies had suffered as four students are cramped in a small room in rented accommodation.
“The laboratory is also incomplete,” the students said.
They said that the principal’s office was still working from GMC hospital.
Principal GMC Anantnag, Dr Tariq Qureshi said that the classes of both the batches would resume from the main campus once their ongoing exams are over.
“The upcoming batch will also start from there,” he said.
DrQureshi said that the furniture was being procured for the classes, the library, and the hostels.
“The principal’s office will also be shifted soon,” he said.
Managing Director (MD) of Jammu and Kashmir Projects Construction Corporation (JKPCC) Showkat Ahmad told Greater Kashmir that they had only got an approval of Rs 4 crore for furniture.
“We have asked the GMC authorities to provide us their requirement as per their priority,” he said.
Ahmad said that they would then invite tenders and provide furniture within the approved amount.
An official said interior work in five other blocks – Lecture Hall, Departmental Block I, Departmental Block II, Professors’ Quarters, and Associate Professors’ Quarters was yet to be accomplished.
“It won’t take us more than two months to complete the work,” the MD JKPCC said.
Another official said that the landscaping, drainage work, STP, approach roads, and fencing walls would need a separate project.
The foundation stone of the campus, located on the outskirts of the town at Dialgam, was laid in May 2016 by the then Union Health Minister J P Nadda and the then chief minister Mehbooba Mufti.
The government had initially set December 2020 as the final deadline of the Rs 133 croreproject, the job of which was entrusted to JKPCC.