Punjab govt plans to begin classes next year

TO SEND PROPOSAL SEEKING 100 MBBS SEATS TO MEDICAL COUNCIL OF INDIA BY AUGUSTEND

CHANDIGARH: In what will be a major relief to medical aspirants seeking affordable education, Punjab has initiated process to start classes at the newly announced Government Medical College in Mohali from next year.

This will be the fourth government medical college in Punjab.

According to a Punjab health department proposal, which is likely to be sent to the Medical Council of India (MCI) by the end of this month, the government is seeking permission for 100 seats in the MBBS (bachelor of medicine and surgery) course for the first year in 2019-20 session.

As the college is to come up at the Mohali civil hospital, the health department claims it already has full-fledged infrastructure in place.

Of 1,125 MBBS seats in various colleges of Punjab, mere 500 are in the government sector: Government Medical College, Patiala (200); Government Medical College, Amritsar (200); and Guru Gobind Singh Government Medical College in Faridkot (100).

The announcement regarding opening the medical college was made by the Captain Amarinder Singh-led government in its first annual budget last year.

The Punjab government would share 40% of the total cost of the project while the Centre would contribute the remaining 60%.

‘INFRA IN PLACE’

“We already have various labs and in the coming months, we are planning to upgrade the infrastructure in a few technical areas that are mandatory to run MBBS classes,” said health minister Brahm Mohindra, asserting that his department is leaving no stone unturned to start the classes from the next session.

“According to infrastructure requirements for the first year, we don’t need a hospital. By the time the batch gets promoted to second year, we would have upgraded the hospital to 200 beds. We plan to increase the capacity to 300 beds by the time the first batch reaches final year,” said Mohindra.

As the hospital requires at least 30 acres of land, Jujhar Nagar village situated next to the civil hospital has agreed to give 10 acres for the medical college. The land has been transferred to the health department.

The department is also planning to shift the Punjab Health Systems Corporation building located in the area to Sector 34, Chandigarh. “If that happens, we will have full-fledged infrastructure to start the college from day one,” said Mohindra.