At least 9 colleges with 1,500 seats continue to be debarred from admitting students for the current MBBS batch (2023-2024). All nine colleges are either private or trust run. Of the nine colleges, two each are from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, and one each from Punjab, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Bihar. At least two colleges face allegations of non-cooperation and misbehaviour from the assessment team. Although medical colleges are inspected from time to time, the issue came to the fore earlier this year when 150 colleges were either de-recognised or sent notices by the NMC. The said colleges had issues such as not having enough patients and staff, and not implementing the new camera and biometric attendance-based system. “Most colleges have been recognised again after appeal to the NMC or health ministry. This is because the colleges, especially the well-established or government ones, corrected minor deficiencies. For example, some colleges had stopped marking attendance on the biometric system since Covid-19. Some colleges did not have enough faculty members. If the deficiency is not more than 10 per cent, departments can admit students for the year while they fill up positions,” said an NMC official. Such developments come at a time when the NMC is trying to establish a new system of continuous monitoring of medical colleges through cameras in hospitals, Aadhaar-based biometric attendance system and using the hospital’s health system management data. The official added: “Major deficiencies were still found at some colleges. If a medical college hospital has a shortage of patients and faculty members to the extent that cannot be immediately corrected, they will not be allowed to take in students for the current batch.” For example, a senior Punjab government official earlier told The Indian Express that during the physical inspection of a private medical college in the state, the NMC found that the college was not conducting studies, nor were there any patients. “Many students are lured into enrolling in such institutes and are unable to receive proper education,” the official said. The said college is one the nine colleges debarred from admitting students. The NMC official clarified that students from previously admitted batches would not be affected. However, colleges that do amend their deficiencies by the time the fourth and final round of counselling starts on September 21, will still not be allowed to admit students for the current batch. This is the first time that over 1 lakh MBBS seats across government and private colleges are available across the country for students, up from 53,000 available seats in 2014.
