Varsity faces a tug-of-war

State Health Minister Dr Daulatrao Aher (who hails from Nashik) had announced during the ongoing budget session of the legislature that the university would start functioning from May 1; now it is doubtful whether the proposal would be implemented in the near future if the squabble continues in a stalemate.

The Nashik Municipal Corporation has already leased out one of its buildings (admeasuring 12,751 sq ft) at Anandvalli to the State Government for three years pending construction of a new one at Mhasrul.

However, the Institute of Science Bachao Kruti Samiti of Nagpur has challenged the government’s decision, saying the Vidarbha Development Board had recommended Nagpur as the venue, according to the committee’s convenor Mannu Datta and a local journalist Umesh Chaube. The petitioners have described the government’s decision as “whimsical and biased against the people of the underdeveloped Vidarbha region”.

To checkmate the move, a meeting was held in Nashik on April 9 to set up an all-party action committee to voice the “injustice done to Nashik by previous governments” and justify the university’s location in their own town.

At the meeting, attended by local leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Shiv Sena, Congress and the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Dr Aher said all parties should rally around to satisfy the interests of Nashik.

Two years ago, he pointed out, the Medical Council of India in Delhi had asked every state to set up a medical university, and he had consequently taken pains to get the project cleared with the state Cabinet.

He said Nagpur already has an Institute of Medical Science on the lines of the one in Chandigarh. However, after the building was constructed, certain problems arose, forcing him as health minister to convert it into a super-speciality hospital, to which local medical colleges were affiliated.

Backing Nashik as the venue of the proposed university, speakers at the meeting pointed out that the North Maharashtra University had been set up in Jalgaon and the Kreeda Vidyapeeth (Sports University) is now proposed to be set up in Pune instead of Nashik.

The meeting concluded with a decision to meet again on April 13 to draw up a concrete plan. The projected cost of setting up the medical varsity is Rs 13.34 crore.

The University is envisaged to function along the lines of similar ones operating in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. It will conduct courses in allopathy, dentistry, ayurveda, unani and homoeopathy, apart from conferring bachelor’s and doctoral degrees in pharmacy.

A special cell will be set up in the Directorate of Medical Education at Mantralaya to coordinate the activities of the University, which aims to neutralise regional imbalances in medical admissions and counter discrepancies arising out of political intervention.

Maharashtra has 125 medical colleges (33 allopathic, 13 dental, 37 ayurvedic, 37 homoeopathic and five unani), of which 19 are government-run.