Gian Sagar Medical College (GSMC) for whose recognition the then MCI director Ketan Desai had allegedly demanded a bribe of Rs 2 crore and was subsequently arrested is among 67 medical colleges which have got the approval of the Medical Council of India for the current academic year. The councils newly constituted Board of Governors (BoG) on Wednesday gave permission to GSMC for renewal of running 100 seats for the academic year 2010-2011. Soon after the corruption case came to light Desai was arrested along with associate Jitender Pal Singh and a representative of the college by the CBI in April a committee was set up by the Union Health Ministry to check if GSMC fulfilled the criteria of a medical college. After investigations,the committee gave a clean chit to the college. We are very happy to have got the decision in our favour,though we were 100 per cent sure that we would not face any trouble as there were hardly any deficiencies for which we could be denied permission. The final approval by the newly formed BoG makes it clear that we were never wrong, principal of the college Dr Jasbir Kaur said on the phone from Patiala. The new BoG was supposed to decide on a total of 81 medical colleges awaiting the MCI nod on their status this year. Out of a total of 81 medical colleges,14 colleges including many government medical colleges were rejected. The task was enormous. For the first time,the assessment was done by assessors from top institutions like AIIMS,JIPMER and armed forces, said Prof Ranjit Roy Chowdhury,a member of the BoG.
