Minister of State for Medical Education Sharanprakash Patil has exuded confidence that the Medical Council of India (MCI) will approve admission of students in the proposed government medical colleges at Madikeri, Karwar and Chamarajanagar in the next academic year.
He told The Hindu on Monday that the executive committee of the MCI, which would meet in New Delhi on April 28, was likely to take a final decision on the issue. Dr. Patil said that an MCI team had inspected the facilities at these colleges twice and the State government had submitted a compliance report about the shortcomings pointed out by it.
The Minister said that the MCI team had also visited the other government medical colleges sanctioned last year at Kalaburagi, Gadag and Koppal and he was confident that the MCI would allow admitting students there in the next academic year.
On the Supreme Court’s decision to recall its judgement on the Common Entrance Examination for medical courses and rehear a petition challenging the earlier decision of the MCI to hold a common all-India entrance examination, Dr. Patil said that as per the information available with the State government, the Union government was considering amending the MCI Act to incorporate a clause to hold an all-India Common Entrance Examination for undergraduate and postgraduate courses.
He said that there were advantages as well many pitfalls in the proposed move to empower the MCI to hold the all-India test. Dr. Patil said that the State government would take its stand after taking into consideration the interests of students and the State.
