Southern States - Tamil Nadu   

All applications for private colleges rejected: DME

By Feroze Ahmed

CHENNAI MAY 2 . The State has till now rejected all applications for starting private medical colleges, the Director of Medical Education, C.Ravindranath, said today, on the eve of talks with medical and dental college students.

"We received only a few applications to start private colleges but rejected all of them," he said. "We have no application pending with us."

The Meenakshi Amman Medical College, however, won a Supreme Court order to run a private institution at Kancheepuram, he added.

The Government apparently rejected applications on the basis that there was no need for more medical colleges.

However, in his recent invitation for talks, the Health Minister, S.Semmalai, said the Government was ready to consider the students' demands for a hike in stipend and withdrawal of the tuition fee increase, but was non-committal on the issue of private colleges, saying only the Medical Council of India was vested with the powers of granting approval.

This stance made the agitating students hold a press meet here today to establish, citing instances, that the State Government had indeed a role in allowing or not allowing private medical colleges. The Medical and Dental College Students' Association demanded that the Government enact law to prevent private colleges coming up, and said it was also opposed to the starting of the Meenakshi Amman Medical College.

Meanwhile, the Tamil Nadu Government Doctors' Association, after a State meeting today, requested the Government to withdraw an order which sought to allow private colleges.

Extending support for the strike by the students, the association said it would endorse service postgraduates joining the protest from May 5 if the issue was not settled amicably. The association would resort to direct action after a State executive meeting on May 12, a TNGDA statement said. It also requested the IMA to support the students.

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