3 med colleges can admit students soon

MUMBAI:IN a major relief to three new medical colleges that found their academic operations stalled due to a June 15 order of Ayush, the Bombay high court has directed the state, Maharashtra University of Health Science (MUHS) and the Ayush ministry to allow these colleges to start admissions from the academic year 2019-20.

The Ayush order restrained states from allowing new medical colleges to be started for two years, as it intended to strengthen the infrastructure of the existing colleges. However, the three colleges claimed that they had got approval from the state and affiliation from the university, prior to the Ayush order.

According to advocate Vishwanath Talkute, representing the colleges, the three colleges, which included a homoeopathy college in Pune and two Ayurveda colleges in Panhala and Jaisingpur, had already received the no-objection certificate from the state health department and the proposed affiliation from MUHS prior to June 15. However, after the Ayush order, the state and MUHS had stalled the processing of their application as the Ayush ministry had refused to accept the documents.

Talkute further informed the court that apart from getting the requisite permissions prior to the order as the colleges had already invested in the infrastructure and there was an acute need for more medical colleges in the state, stalling them would prove to be a huge loss.

After hearing the submissions, the bench of justice B R Gavai said that as the procedure for starting new colleges had started well before the Ayush order and all other requirements were in place, the authorities should complete the process and ensure that the colleges are allowed to start functioning from the academic year 2019-20.