The State government has received approval from the Medical Council of India to admit 200 more students in its medical colleges, Health Minister V.S. Vijay announced on Wednesday.
Approval has been received from the Medical Council of India to admit 100 students to the newly started Sivaganga Medical College and 50 more students each to Kilpauk Medical College (KMC) and Chengalpet Medical College. From this year, the KMC will admit 150 students, while the Chengalpet Medical College will admit 100 students. The Health Department authorities received letters of intent a fortnight ago.
Following this addition, a total of 1,823 students from the State will be admitted to the MBBS course in 17 government medical colleges, while 321 seats will be reserved for students competing under the all India quota. A total of 28,275 candidates have applied for medicine this year.
The State government had sought to increase the number of seats to the Madras Medical College and the Stanley Medical College but with little success.
Though these colleges received Central funds to expand their facilities several years ago, the classroom capacity has not been raised to accommodate more students, say senior Health Department officials.
The plan for new buildings was drawn up in 2008 when the MCI had not mooted the proposal to increase the number of seats in medical colleges. By the time the MCI revised its guidelines, the construction work had begun. Institutions that had planned for the increase benefited. Thus Sri Ramachandra University increased its intake to 250 students while the government medical colleges have been unable to raise their intake.
A senior official said even the Karnataka government-run Bangalore Medical College and West Bengal government’s Calcutta Medical College had increased their student intake. The official cited lack of funds for not increasing the classroom size. “The plans were drawn up in 2008 but it was in 2010 that the MCI decided to increase the number of seats. In order to expand the classrooms we need more funds from the government,” he said.
Random numbers
On Wednesday, the Directorate of Medical Education released random numbers for the 28,275 applicants for the MBBS course. Students can log on to www.tnhealth.org or www.tn.gov.in. Candidates may enter their application registration number to get the details of the random number. The website also offers the option of entering the registration number and the year of passing to generate the details.
