A team from medical council of India (MCI) is currently on visit to inspect the new five medical colleges in the state and assess their readiness for offering admission to MBBS course this academic year.
An official in health and medical education department saidthat the three-member team started inspection of government medical collegeDoda on Monday morning. The team took stock of the infrastructure of thecollege, the faculty and other staff in place and the readiness of the hospitalassociated with the medical college.
“The team paid a visit to our campus today. We are hopefulto get a go-ahead,” Dr Tariq Azad, principal GMC Doda said.
The team is expected to visit the two new medical colleges in Anantnag and Baramulla on Wednesday, after visiting GMC Kathua and GMC Rajouri.
An official in health and medical education department said that the team might visit Anantnag and Baramulla after concluding the inspection of medical college Doda, Kathua and Rajouri. “Usually, they take up all the colleges for inspection in the same visit,” he said.
The official said that the council would conclude allinspections before 15 April in order to pave way for issuing letter ofpermission to the upcoming medical colleges to admit the first batches of 100students each through National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET).
At medical colleges Anantnag and Baramulla, an officialsaid, the basic requirements for starting the first batch of students of MBBShave been completed. “We have completed the temporary classrooms, laboratoriesand library and are quite hopeful that MCI would give us a go-ahead,” anofficial said. He added that the permanent buildings of the medical collegeswere also “coming up well,” expected to get completed by the end of 2019.
According to an official, the upcoming medical colleges have recently submitted the compliance report of the shortcomings pointed out by the council during its visit in December last year.
However, he said, there still are “minor shortfalls” which are expected to be addressed in coming few months. “In few medical colleges, we do not have any faculty for physiology and anatomy which is a basic requirement,” he said adding that MCI may be “lenient” this time and allow the colleges to take the first batch.
The five medical colleges were allotted to J&K in 2014,each with a funding component of Rs 189 crores.