BFUHS no to scrapping govt seats at SGPC-run college

Faridkot Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS), Fardikot, has refused to accord its sanction to Sri Guru Ram Das Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (SGRDIMSR), Amritsar, to bring all 75 governmentquota MBBS seats under the management quota.

The fee for minority quota and management quota is same (around Rs 40 lakh at the institute). This is about four times the cost (around Rs 10 lakh) of a seat in a government quota.

The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC)-run institute has 150 seats with 75 government quota seats and 75 seats under management/minority quota.

The state government is yet to accord the status of a private university to the institute, a mandatory condition, if it wanted to change the composition of seats.

Yet, on July 1, the institute went ahead and announced the scraping of government-quota seats.

“We can’t accept their division of seats until they get the approval of the government. Their status of a medical university is pending and until they get that, the government quota seats can’t be scrapped. The matter has already been brought to the notice of the government,” a senior official with the varsity said.

“We will introduce all the seats of the college under management quota once government approves the same,” a senior officer with the varsity said.

SGRDIMSR principal Geeta Sharma said, “The college is likely to get the status of a medical university soon. Thus, we decided to put all seats in the management quota.”

Meanwhile, a meeting of all the principals of medical and dental colleges was held at BFUHS on Tuesday, pertaining to distribution of seats for counselling of NEET candidates. Around 6,000 candidates have registered for the varsity’s NEET counselling.

AMRITSAR COLLEGE HAD SCRAPPED ALL 75 SEATS UNILATERALLY AND CONVERTED THESE TO MANAGEMENT QUOTA; FEE WOULD HAVE BEEN FOURTIME GOVT QUOTA