510 more MBBS seats for Punjab, Himachal, Haryana
CHANDIGARH: Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh and Punjab will have additional 510 MBBS seats. This comes after several negotiations between the Medical Council of India (MCI) and the Union ministry of health and family welfare. The seat allocation is the highest for Punjab at 325, followed by Himachal Pradesh at 85. Haryana has 50 seats. Four new medical colleges which were to be set up in Haryana have been rejected. Together, they could have given the state a total of 450 seats. No new medical college was requested for Punjab, which already has 10 medical colleges. Request for a medical college in Mandi, HP for 100 seats has been disapproved. Government Medical College and Hospital in Chandigarh got one time permission for 100 seats, which was reduced to 50 recently.
Among government medical colleges in Punjab, only Government Medical College, Amritsar’s request for 50 additional seats has been rejected. It has 150 seats. Guru Gobind Singh Medical College, Faridkot has doubled the intake from 50 to 100. Government Medical College, Patiala has increased intake by 50 additional seats.
In Haryana, request for 100 seats for the fourth batch in Goldfield institute of Medical Sciences in Faridabad has been rejected. Only 50 seats have been increased in the state’s medical college at Pt Bhagwat Dayal Sharma, Postgraduate University of medical sciences, Rohtak. Himachal has four medical colleges, of which there is one private medical college. Indira Gandhi Medical College, Shimla, which had 65 seats, has secured approval for 100 seats and Government Medical College, Tanda has also got approval for 100 seats. Last year, it had 50.
The delayed approvals and rejections have caused major inconvenience for MBBS applicants. Dr Arvind Goyal, who recently filed a writ petition against errors in the All India Pre-Medical Test said, “As the Supreme Court fixed end of counselling schedule by 21 July, the MCI should have finished the process of inspection and declaration of seats. Many students who couldn’t get seats in the first round of counseling had to go to far away places, after depositing their original certificates and the fee. Now, as seats have been declared at this stage, they will have to go back to get back their certificates to attend the second round of counselling.”
