The Hindu : Deadline set for approval of medical, dental colleges

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jun 01, 2003

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National

Deadline set for approval of medical, dental colleges

By P. Sunderarajan

NEW DELHI May 31. After issuing guidelines detailing the procedures for admissions, the Centre has directed the Medical Council of India and the Dental Council of India to ensure that all formalities for establishing new colleges and granting the annual permission for recently established colleges were completed by June 30.

Urging the two Councils to hold their executive committee meetings as often as necessary to clear all the pending cases, the directive recalled a recent Supreme Court order, which required that the process of admission in all medical and dental colleges be completed well before the academic session began and that there should be no mid-session admissions under any circumstance.

As a follow-up to the order, the Centre had earlier this month issued a detailed time-table covering the entire process of admission, including when to conduct the entrance examinations and when to hold counselling.

As per the schedule, the academic session should begin between August 1 and 31. Instructions were also issued to the effect that under no circumstances should a student be admitted beyond September 30.

Copies of the directive to the MCI and the DCI have also been sent to all colleges, with a warning that the Centre would not be responsible if recommendations for approving new colleges or for annual renewal were not received before June 30.

The new directive has put an onerous task on both the MCI and the DCI, as out of the 49 medical and 65 dental colleges that were required to get their annual permission this year, only 17 medical and 18 dental colleges have obtained it so far. In addition, 22 applications for starting new colleges, both medical and dental, are pending approval.

Admitting that it was a difficult task, Union Health Ministry officials, however, insisted that it was not impossible as the approval process was in the final stages in most cases. "All the pending cases can be cleared before the deadline, if MCI, DCI and the colleges make sincere efforts."

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