Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Apr 23: The State Government has set the process in motion to open five new Medical Colleges in Jammu and Kashmir, which had been approved by the Union Health Ministry in February this year. The Government has framed panels from the senior faculty members of Government Medical College (GMC), Jammu and Srinagar to appoint Nodal Officers/Incharge Principals in all five Medical Colleges and, if everything goes well, enroll 100 Medical students in every GMC from the current session, which would take off in August-September provided that no legal hurdles crop up as the BOPEE had already issued a notification for Common Entrance Test (CET).
A formal announcement on opening of five new Medical Colleges at Kathua, Doda and Rajouri in Jammu region and Baramulla and Anantnag in Kashmir region and increase of 500 Medical seats-100 each in every Medical College-was likely to be made by the Government with the lifting of Model Code of Conduct (MCC) imposed for the general elections after the completion of electoral process on May 16 when counting will be held for all Lok Sabha seats.
Official sources told the Excelsior that the Government was keen to make all new five Medical Colleges functional from the upcoming academic session itself. Therefore, the Government has set the process in motion to appoint Nodal Officers/Incharge Principals for all five Medical Colleges and shortlisted panels of five senior most faculty members for making the appointments.
“The Government has decided to convert the existing District Hospitals in all five districts into the Medical Colleges and equip them with requisite infrastructure and faculty,” sources said, adding the Government was likely to write to Board of Professional Entrance Examination (BOPEE) to increase 500 Medical seats from the upcoming academic session-100 each for five proposed Medical Colleges.
As per the new guidelines of the Medical Council of India (MCI), the new Medical Colleges can be opened with 200 bedded hospitals. All five District Hospitals at Kathua, Doda, Rajouri, Anantnag and Baramulla had the capacity to raise their strength to 200 beds.
Another guideline of the MCI was that the new GMCs must have 100 kanals land. Sources said District Hospital Kathua has 104 kanals land while DH Doda has 70 kanals land. The Government would acquire 70 kanals land for it. DH Rajouri has 64 kanals land while it has adjacent land of Government quarters and some agriculture, which would take it to 100 kanals.
Admitting that the permission of the MCI was must for making the admissions to new GMCs as the MCI teams had to inspect infrastructure and faculty before giving nod for the admissions, sources said, adding the similar powers were vested with the Union Health Ministry, which can give permission for opening of the new Medical Colleges. The MCI could also give permission for the admissions later with retrospective effect, they added.
The panel of five senior most faculty members prepared by the Government for appointment of three Nodal Officers/Incharge Principals for three Medical Colleges of Jammu included Dr Ganshyam Dev Gupta (HoD Radiology), Dr Zahid Geelani (HoD Pharmacology), Dr Bela Mahajan (HoD Microbiology), Dr Sunanda Raina (HoD Anatomy) and Dr Ashutosh Gupta (HoD Oncology).
As a special case, the name of Dr Tariq Azad, Professor in Surgery Department of the GMC Jammu has been proposed as Nodal Officer/Incharge Principal for Doda GMC as he hailed from that district and the Government felt that he would be the fit person to make the GMC functional there at the earliest.
Sources said Dr Ganshyam Dev Gupta has verbally communicated to the Government his inability to join as Nodal Officer/Incharge Principal GMC Kathua due to domestic problem after which the Government was considering rest of the names for Kathua and Rajouri GMCs.
Sources said the Government was likely to appoint Dr Parvez Ahmed Kaiser as Nodal Officer/Incharge Principal for GMC Anantnag and Dr Javed Choudhary as Nodal Officer/Incharge Principal, GMC Baramulla. “If any of them opts out, the Government would pick up the Nodal Officer for the two GMCs from three remaining senior faculty members,” sources said.
According to sources, the increase of 500 Medical seats would take total number of MBBS seats from current academic session to 950 as 450 seats were already available in the State including 150 each in GMC Jammu and Srinagar, 100 at SKIMS Soura and 50 at ASCOMS Sidhra, which are filled by the BOPEE.
Sources said the Government proposed to write to the BOPEE to fill 500 seats in five newly proposed GMCs from upcoming academic session after Nodal Officer/Incharge Principals are appointed there and other requisite faculty members made available.
However, the problem, which could crop up for the Government in making 500 new admissions to the Medical Colleges was that the BOPEE had already issued notification for the CET taking into account 350 Medical seats. The Government would write to the BOPEE to increase number of the seats as per requirement of five new GMCs.
They added that it wouldn’t be possible for the Government to take MCI nod immediately for admissions in the new GMCs but said the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has the powers to grant permission for the admissions. The MCI can endorse the decision of the Ministry after inspections with retrospective effect as had happened in the case of Dental College, Jammu.
Sources said the Government proposed to raise necessary infrastructure and faculty for five GMCs at the earliest as it wanted to make them functional from upcoming academic session. They added that the Government was in haste as it wanted to take credit for opening of five new GMCs in the Assembly elections, which were due in October-November this year.
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