Saturday, March 05 2011
Chennai: This academic year, Tamil Nadu is likely to get at least 300 additional seats for MBBS courses in government colleges.

The Directorate of Medical Education has approached the Medical Council of India for 100 additional seats each in the Madras Medical College (MMC) and Stanley Medical College (SMC). It is also planning to apply for permission to start a medical college at Sivaganga. If this happens, the number of seats at the MMC and SMC will go up to 250 each. “The MCI team has already inspected MMC. We are waiting for them to inspect the Stanley Medical College,” said medical education director Dr C Vamsadhara. At present, there are 17 government medical colleges offering 1,945 seats in MBBS. “The civil works for the new medical college in Sivaganga is nearing completion. We are hoping to another medical college here,” she said. However, the health department might also lose some seats from the private medical colleges affiliated to the Tamil Nadu Dr MGR Medical University. So far, these colleges had contributed 60% of the seats to the counselling organised by a selection committee every year.

In 2010, DD Medical College, Tiruvallur, was permitted by the MCI to start a MBBS courses for 150 students. Since it was registered as a minority’s institution, it had to share only 50% of the seats with the state government. But the college did not share any seats through the single window system.

“We were the first to tell the state government that we will not share seats. There is no legal binding on us to do so. Even the Supreme Court has clearly stated that the state government cannot interfere in the admission process as long as the MCI regulations are followed,” said college chairman TD Naidu.

State health department officials fear this will set a wrong trend.