Southern States - Tamil Nadu   

2 more groups lobbying to start medical colleges

By Feroze Ahmed

CHENNAI AUG. 27. At least two more private groups have applied to the Government for permission to start medical colleges — one at Chromepet and the other at Melmaruvathur in Kancheepuram district.

Calls to the Balaji Dental College and the Adhi Parasakthi Engineering College confirmed that their parent organisations were seeking clearance for starting the medical colleges.

Staff of the `Balaji Medical College and Hospital' at Chromepet said admissions to the college would not commence this year but construction of the hospital was on. A selection committee member of the college confirmed that a medical college was being started but refused further comment.

As for the Adhi Parasakthi Medical college at Melmaruvathur, an office-bearer said the trust was awaiting a no-objection certificate' from the Government. ``We do not have approval from the Government yet.''

Government doctors said a number of organisations, which are already in the medical sector, and educational trusts, which are in the engineering, dental or paramedical fields, had also applied for permission for starting private medical colleges.

Sources in the Department of Health and Family Welfare confirmed that discussions were on between ``some institutions'' and the Government. ``It may not be right to say that the medical colleges are opening now but discussions are definitely on,'' the official said.

The Medical Council of India announced earlier this month that, as per the Medical College Regulations, 1999, all applications for establishing new medical colleges from the academic session 2004-2005 would have to be submitted to the Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, before September 1.

The lobbying by private institutions comes just months after the Government struck down a long-drawn strike by medical college students and government doctors against the entry of private medical colleges. The Government then assured the agitators that it was also against allowing new private medical colleges, but refused to commit itself to preventing their entry.

The agitation, which ran for a month till mid-May, was triggered by reports that a private institute — the Meenakshi Medical College at Kancheepuram — had been permitted to start functioning. The students and doctors had complained that the move would set the stage for the entry of other private colleges in the State and thus, ``commercialisation'' of medical education.

(Of all medical colleges coming under the State Government's single-window system of admissions for MBBS, the Meenakshi college, authorities say, charges the highest fee at Rs.3.96 lakhs a year. It was started this academic year after it won a verdict in the Supreme Court against the State Government, which had refused to issue an NoC for starting the college.)

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