A high-level team of Medical Council of India (MCI) will inspect the under-construction medical college Anantnag in September to assess whether permission could be granted for starting MBBS course at the institute from next academic session.
The team from the MCI would visit the site in Dialgam, Anantnag, where the new medical college Anantnag is under construction, reads a communication from the regulatory body to the state health and medical education department.
The team, in addition to assessing the progress of the infrastructure development to clear start of MBBS course would also inspect the position of faculty and other staff needed for the course.
The team will also inspect the upcoming medical college Kathua.
The state was allocated five medical colleges under a central program. But no communication has been received for inspection of medical college Baramulla, medical college Doda and medical college Rajouri, an official said.
The officials said although no date has been fixed as yet, but the inspection would take place in September.
The visit comes as part of process required for issuing letter of permission (LoP) for admission to first batch of the MBBS students in these medical colleges in forthcoming academic session.
Each of the medical colleges including Anantnag College is waiting for go-ahead to begin with an intake capacity of 100 students. The MCI had not granted LoP to new medical colleges in J&K for admission of first batch last year.
Prof Showkat A Jeelani, who was appointed as principal of medical college Anantnag in July this year, said he was “optimistic” about getting a go-ahead from the MCI for starting the course.
“We are working hard so that we could start MBBS in the colleges. There is a dire need for it,” he said.
However, a source in H&ME said that LoP from MCI was “highly unlikely” as Anantnag college like other colleges was yet to have faculty and staff in position.
He said J&K Public Service Commission (PSC) and J&K Service Selection Board were sitting on the recruitment of faculty and other staff for these colleges.
“The entry level posts (of faculty) were advertised in January by the PSC. Seven months have passed and there is no progress on the filling of these posts,” the official said.
“Can we expect the MCI will grant permission for starting the MBBS classes when there are no teachers?” he asked.
For Medical College Anantnag, 66 positions of assistant professor had been referred to the PSC, as per an official document.
Recently, the PSC had been directed by former Governor NN Vohra to expedite the recruitment process for the medical colleges.
The construction work is already going on Anantnag medical college. “The class rooms and labs, sufficient to meet basic requirement criteria set by the MCI, would be ready early next year before the classes are scheduled to start,” said the official.
These Medical Colleges were announced by then Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad in February 2014 as part of a Centrally Sponsored Scheme.
The foundation stones were laid by Union health minister JP Nadda in May 2016. The first posts in all these five colleges, those of principals, were filled in July this year.
The PSC chairman Lateef-Ul-Zamaan Deva said recruitment process of faculty positions for all five colleges including Anantnag medical college would be completed by November end.
“The process will start on 7 September and will be completed by November end,” he said. Around 270 faculty positions and 70 posts of medical officers were referred to the PSC for filling them up.