Annual inspection of infrastructure and faculty strength in the newly established medical colleges in the State by the Medical Council of India (MCI) and the strategies that the government and the private self-financing institutions devise every year to meet the MCI norms is something that has become all too familiar in the State.
The script goes somewhat like this: there is first the MCI notification about an imminent inspection; then a flurry of transfers and a little bit of window dressing here and there to go some way to meet the MCI norms. Often, the government would still fail to rise up to the MCI norms. After quite a bit of pleading and an assurance that the deficiencies would be made up within a timeframe, the MCI would grant permission to the government to carry on the MBBS admissions.
That script went a little awry this year and almost raised the spectre of the State losing 150 seats in the fledgling Idukki and Palakkad government medical colleges, as the MCI rejected Kerala’s application for leave to admit the second batch of MBBS students at these colleges. The government had won MCI clearance for starting MBBS batches in its Palakkad, Manjeri, and Idukki medical colleges last year after giving an undertaking that all deficiencies would be rectified within a year.
On the eve of the MCI team’s assessment this year, attempts were indeed made to make up for the shortfall in faculty and residents’ positions by ‘redeploying’ staff from other older institutions and by transferring doctors en masse temporarily to the new medical colleges.
But MCI has in recent times been tightening its control on all medical colleges and is well aware of the practice of many institutions deploying ghost faculty to manage the headcount on inspection day. It has been insisting on creating a faculty data base by integrating Aadhaar cards, fingerprints, and switching over to Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) system.
As could be expected under the circumstances, the undertaking given by the government about making up deficiencies and the compliance report it submitted did not cut ice with the MCI and, in May, the council’s executive committee gave the go ahead for MBBS admissions in Manjeri but not Idukki and Palakkad. With the current academic year’s MBBS admissions to begin soon, the State authorities were in a tizzy.
With few options left, Health Secretary K. Ellangovan made a dash for New Delhi and he was able to ensure that the government did not suffer yet another loss of face by losing the precious 150 government medical seats. Based on an appeal made directly to the Union Health Ministry seeking more time to set matters right, the State has been given the go-ahead to admit students in the Idukki and Palakkad medical colleges, but strictly on condition that deficiencies would be made up in three months. It is fingers crossed yet again as everyone from officials to medical college teachers and students await action on the ground to keep the State’s word to the Union Health Ministry.
It looks like a battle of words is setting the stage for the upcoming battle of ballots for control of local bodies in the State. If Thiruvananthapuram had its share of swashbuckling between the Congress and the CPI(M), in Kannur, Member of Parliament P.K. Sreemathy is in the centre of action, launching a verbal fusillade against Kannur municipal chairperson Roshni Khalid and legislator A.P. Abdullakkutty.
Ms. Sreemathy has found fault with much that has been done by the municipality controlled by Congress and has even claimed credit for revival of a few ponds in the municipal area and the Padannathodu drainage canal. Her attack on the municipal council has been met with accusation from the rival side, with Mr. Abdullakkutty ridiculing what he terms her attempt to claim credit for something that was done utilising State funds and Ms. Khalid accusing her of having told local residents in one part of the municipality not to part with land for laying a new road. The MP has come up with a rebuttal of Mr. Abdullakkutty’s charge and the municipal chairperson’s allegation and the exchanges between the two sides appears set to go on till the civic elections due in October this year.
The CPI(M) has always found Kannur municipality an unbreakable UDF bastion and the MP’s outburst against the municipal authorities is being seen as an attempt to create chinks in the faction-ridden Congress so that the CPI(M) would have some chance of making a breakthrough, howsoever small it be.
The much-hyped mass contact programme of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy in Palakkad has left many a little puzzled. While the Chief Minister was patience personified as he listened to grievances of hundreds and ordered on-the-spot solutions to the woes of many, the 16 mega projects announced by him for the district appeared to many as old wine in old bottle.
The only scheme that stood out for its newness was the Rs.10.82-crore farm revival scheme focusing on food security.
Among the old schemes that the Chief Minister reiterated were the Rs.360-crore medical college project in Palakkad, electrification of tribal households, and the creation of a permanent campus for the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Palakkad.
Worse, the Moolathara right bank canal to carry water from Parambikulam-Aliyar project to water-starved regions of Chittur taluk is stuck for want of funds. What left many even more puzzled was the Chief Minister’s silence when reporters asked him, in the course of an interaction, why these projects had been presented as though they were on the drawing board.
With inputs from C. Maya (Thiruvananthapuam), Mohamed Nazeer (Kannur), and K.A. Shaji (Palakkad)
