For the last three months the first-year students of Government Siddha Medical College, Palayamkottai, have been anxiously awaiting for the commencement of classes. On Wednesday around 30 students and their parents came to the Government Siddha Medical College in Chennai, to stage a protest.
“During the counselling I was told that the college would open on November 1, 2011. While classes in the College in Chennai began, we have not been intimated about our classes so far,” says V.Daarinipriyanka, a first-year undergraduate student, who scored 1030 marks in Class XII.
Following the inspection by the Department of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy (AYUSH), it was found that the college in Palayamkottai lacked basic facilities and qualified faculty members. As a result, the permission to run the course in the college was cancelled.
On the first day of counselling, students say that they were informed that the Palayamkottai College had not received permission. But during the counselling held on October 21, they were told that the course had been approved. “We submitted all our mark sheets and documents and got admitted on October 28. We were told that classes would begin on November 1. We paid the hostel fee also, but haven't been able to enter even the premises,” E.M. Gowshalya, a first-year undergraduate student.
The postgraduate students also attended the counselling based on the assurance that the college would begin in ten days.
“Around 100 undergraduate students and 60 postgraduate students have been affected. The counselling for our M.D course was also held later and we were allotted seats there,” says P.K. Ramesh, a postgraduate student.
If the college does not have sufficient facilities and had not received permission, why did they decide to allot seats to students in this college? asks a parent.
“We have acted as per the court directions and conducted the counselling. The court ordered that we wait for the approval of AYUSH. We have settled all the shortcomings and expect to receive the approval in 10 days,” says A.M. Abdul Khader, joint director, Department of Indian Medicine and Homeopathy, government of Tamil Nadu.
