Permission denied for 50 additional seats in Tirunelveli College
Tirunelveli, Jul 16 - The Medical Council of India has denied permission for admitting 50 additional students in the Tirunelveli Medical College (TVMC), for the "college did not possess adequate infrastructure and faculty" to educate 150 students.
A MCI communique to the college carried this message, TVMC sources here said today. The number of faculty members and infrastructure were not sufficient to satisfy the norms stipulated by the MCI, the sources said.
"The MCI norm requires a student— teacher ratio of 1:1 for postgraduate courses. Likewise, it requires a good number of faculty members for MBBS. The number of faculty members available for Anatomy
, Physiology
and Biochemistry
branches here is not adequate. No major purchase was made in the past ten years to procure medical equipment. Furniture, including plastic chairs, was hired whenever MCI teams visited the college," a faculty member said.
Admitting that the number of qualified doctors in Anatomy
and Physiology
was less in the college, the Dean, TVMC, Alfred Samson, said the problem existed all over the country, as the number of doctors with postgraduate degree in these fields was few. He said the college placed orders with Khadi to procure Rs. 4 lakh-worth wooden chairs and tables.
The Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, today said the State Government was "taking steps" on a "war-footing" to ensure that the Tuticorin and Kanyakumari medical colleges received Medical Council of India (MCI) recognition and that the Tirunelveli Medical College was permitted to add 50 seats.
At her first press conference here, after the defeat of the All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in the Lok Sabha poll, Ms. Jayalalithaa said officials were of the "general opinion" that the MCI action bordered on the extreme. Regardless of this, the Government initiated action so that "no one will be able to find fault with our colleges."
Asked whether it was right to transfer doctors for a short period ahead of an MCI inspection, she said this was the "unwritten convention" being followed for more than 20 years. "It was brought to my notice now... Even during their (DMK) regime this was the situation."
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