Eight new medical colleges in Telangana bring little joy as number of MBBS seats permitted remains low

Despite getting permission for eight new government medical colleges, the government could not ensure that medical aspirants of the State had access to 800 MBBS seats this academic year

Hyderabad: Despite getting permission for eight new government medical colleges in Telangana State, the Congress-led government could not capitalize on an opportunity to ensure that medical aspirants of the State had access to 800 MBBS seats this academic year.

Instead, only 400 seats have been added for this academic year with the National Medical Commission (NMC) permitting 50 medical seats in each of the eight new medical colleges.

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The oversight on the part of the Congress-led State government is in stark contrast to the recent round of NMC permissions for new medical colleges across India.

Of the 44 new medical colleges from across the country that had applied for MBBS program to the Medical Assessment and Rating Board (MARB) of NMC, 11 new medical colleges received permission for 100 MBBS seats and another 10 received permission for 150 seats.

It is not an impossible task to achieve 100 MBBS seats for new medical colleges, which already happened in 2023-24 when the then BRS government established nine medical colleges and received permission for 900 MBBS seats at one go.

The nine districts where the new medical colleges in 2023-24 were established are Kamareddy, Karimnagar, Khammam, Jayashankar Bhupalapally, Asifabad, Nirmal, Sircilla, Vikarabad and Jangaon.

The State government had ample time to prepare for the groundwork for NMC inspections (that took place this March/April) by improving medical infrastructure and complete the recruitment process of manpower needed for new medical colleges.

On its part, the then BRS government, way back in July, 2023, had issued orders to establish eight new medical colleges in Jogulamba Gadwal, Narayanpet, Mulugu, Warangal, Medak, Yadadri Bhongir, Rangareddy and Medchal-Malkajgiri districts.

This year, the Congress-led State government just barely managed to get permission for the eight new medical colleges. During its annual inspections, the NMC permitted only four medical colleges in the districts of Mulugu, Narasampet, Jogulamba Gadwal and Narayanpet.

The inspecting teams were not happy with the medical infrastructure/manpower in the remaining four medical colleges in the districts of Bhongir, Rangareddy (at Maheswaram), Medak and Medchal-Malkajgiri (at Qutbullapur).

In a face saving measure, in the final phase of inspections, the State government managed to get permission for the remaining four new medical colleges but with only 50 medical seats each.