Data of students going abroad to pursue MBBS is not maintained centrally, Minister of State for health Bharti Pravin Pawar informed the Lok Sabha on Friday.
Since May 2018, candidates could not be admitted to a medical college without qualifying in NEET, and the results of the exam were treated as the eligibility certificate for such persons and no separate permission was required from the National Medical Commission. Thus, the data was not maintained, she said.
Dr. Pawar was responding to a series of questions raised in the Lok Sabha by nine Members of Parliament (MP) representing Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Bihar, West Bengal and Telangana. They were posed by Dayanidhi Maran, Sougata Ray, Rama Devi, E.T. Mohammed Basheer, Rajmohan Unnithan, V.K. Sreekandan, Asaduddin Owaisi, N.K. Premachandran and S. Venkatesan.
The MPs wanted to know if the Union Health Ministry had devised a scheme to admit medical students who had returned from Ukraine and China. They sought to know how many medical students had enrolled in Ukrainian colleges, how many were evacuated, what stage of the course they were in and the details of the States and Union Territories they are from.
They asked for details on whether the government planned to admit those who returned from China and evacuated from Ukraine to medical colleges in the country. They wanted to know if a scheme has been framed for admissions and will the students be allowed to do internship and extended financial support.
Dr. Pawar siad Indian students with foreign medical qualification must clear the Medical Council of India Screening Test to practice medicine in the country, she said, adding: “Medical graduates who have completed their course work but had to return to India before completing internship owing to the war in Ukraine or COVID-19 situation in China, will have to complete the remaining part of the internship in India, subject to the condition that they have cleared the screening test.”
She cited Section 14 of the National Medical Commission Act, 2019 and clause 8 (iv) of the Eligibility Requirement for Taking Admission in an Undergraduate Medical Course in a Foreign Medical Institution Regulation 2002 to emphasise her point.
The commission had issued a circular on March 4 permitting “foreign medical graduates with incomplete internship” to complete their leftover tenure in India provided they have cleared the screening test, which is mandatory for Indian students with foreign medical qualification to practice medicine in India, she informed the House.
