Chintpurni students to be shifted to 3 govt colleges

The Punjab government will shift all 249 MBBS students — of 2014 and 2016 batches — admitted to Chintpurni Medical College, Pathankot, to three government medical colleges in Amritsar, Patiala and Faridkot, Punjab health, and medical education and research minister Brahm Mohindra announced on Sunday.

The minister will chair a meeting on the issue in Chandigarh on Monday, where Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, Faridkot, vice-chancellor; Punjab medical education and research director and principals of the three Government Medical Colleges where the students will be shifted will be present. Selected students and members of Parents’ Association of these students have also been invited.

When implemented, the decision will mean a lockdown on the college that is owned by BJP leader Swaran Salaria, who also unsuccessfully contested the recent bypoll for Gurdaspur Lok Sabha seat. The college started admissions in 2011, in spite of the fact that the medical education regulator, the Medical Council of India (MCI),

did not grant it the mandatory approvals. The 2011 batch of 150 students had earlier moved the Punjab and Haryana high court and have since long been shifted to other colleges, students of 2014 and 2016 batches faced a bleak future. On April 26, 2016, these students moved the HC seeking to shift to other colleges in the state claiming that their institute is “short of infrastructure”

However, the HC order of September 8, where it directed the state government to shift all students of 2014 batch of Chintpurni Medical College to other medical colleges across the state within two months came as some relief.

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“We are shifting these students to the government colleges due to the fee structure. No student should have to pay high fee,” Mohindra told HT, adding that the ‘students will be shifted as soon as possible’.

“We have claimed the Rs 10 crore security that the colleges submitted to the MCI. Now, the burden of these students is on the Punjab government as will be required to build more infrastructure and hire faculty,” Mohindra added, claiming that the college management had defrauded students and the previous SAD-BJP regime was e answerable for the crisis.

MEDICAL COLLEGES IN AMRITSAR, PATIALA AND FARIDKOT TO GET 249 STUDENTS OF 2014 AND 2016 BATCHES; HEALTH MINISTER BRAHM MOHINDRA TO CHAIR MEETING TODAY